For the purpose of improving water quality in river water bodies and to promote environmental quality in the prefecture, in addition to the continuation of previous work on water pollution control inspections, the active promotion of overall plan for water area environmental control in accordance with the characteristics of each river water body and sources of water pollution is required so as to extend the comprehensive security, comfortable and beautiful river recreation space. Therefore, the Changhua County River ＆ Marine Pollution Control cum Total Load Management Project for Pollution in Major Watershed, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as “the Project”) is hereby proposed in the present year (2015) to hopefully master the water pollution data of the municipal territory to facilitate the follow-up control operation through the implementation of the Project.
The tender specification planning for the Project shall start from the day next following the tender awarding date (April 28, 2015) and end on November 30, 2015; and the expanded procurement tender specifications work shall start from the contract date (July 20, 2015 ) and end on November 30, 2015. All working projects have been completed as of November 5, 2015. The results of the final report are summarized as follows:
1. Preprocess Related Matters Regarding Continuously Handling Total Load Management of Water Body Pollution
In consideration of the food security issue which has increasingly attracted attention in recent years, for the purpose of ensuring the water quality of East and West second and third field ditches farmland specifically protected water bodies is fine and protecting food security and to practically implement watershed health management, the Project assists the Environmental Protection Bureau in delineation of “East and West second and third field ditch farmland specifically protected water bodies’ water quality total quantity control zone in Changhua County” and recommendations on grade classification of control area in accordance with the information of neighboring pollution potential areas of East and West second and third field ditch farmland, pollution facts about farming patch distribution, quality of irrigation water source and irrigation group water systems, etc. Making an overlap analysis on water quality monitoring stations, quality of monitoring stations’ water, irrigation groups and canal distribution in mainstream and diversion canals of East and West second and third field ditches based on the results of water quality analysis, it is found that monitoring stations exceeding the norm center mainly on middle and lower reaches, showing that the middle and lower reaches are the major regions of heavy metal pollution, and such regions contain quite a few heavy metal pollution control sites. The heavy metals exceeding the norm in each monitoring station mainly are copper, nickel, cadmium and total chromium. The Project makes a comprehensive analysis and delineates total quantity control zones preliminarily by using the relevant information about irrigation group distributed locations, contaminated sites on agricultural land, watercourse distribution of the East and West second and third field ditches, water quality monitoring results conducted by the Environmental Protection Bureau and the Irrigation Association’s water quality monitoring stations, etc. All regions of control zones are preliminarily designated as class 1 because of the results exceeding irrigation water quality standards within the delineated range monitored by the majority of water quality monitoring stations. The total quantity control zones including some villages of Changhua City, Hemei Town etc. of which the delineated area is 13.56 square kilometers. There are 26 units of restricted enterprises classified and construed by the Water Pollution Control Act as well as 56 non-restricted enterprises classified and construed by the Waters Pollution Control Act within the control zones. Its control mode is set forth referring to the relevant provisions proposed by the EPA, containing tightened controls on effluent standards, water pollution control permit (document) management and establishment of effluent water quality and quantity automatic monitoring system etc. in order to urge improvement of both existing enterprises and sewer system and to upgrade the water pollution control measures to effectively reduce emissions of heavy metals and to better the farmland pollution situation within the irrigation area of East and West second and third field ditches.
Additionally, regarding watershed of the old LTK (Loh Tsui Kweh i.e. Jiou (Old) Jhuo Shuei River), the Project continues the implementation outcomes of last year's performance, assesses and evaluates the carrying capacity of the river reach between Sanhsi Bridge and Sanho Bridge and assesses its acceptable discharge amount as well by means of water quality model. Based on evaluation results, the carrying capacity of BOD between Sanhsi Bridge and Sanho Bridge is 1,629.4 kg/day, carrying capacity of NH3-N is 651.8 kg/day; allowable emission of BOD is 8,864.3 kg / day, NH3-N is 1,423.3kg / day. Therefore, in order to reduce pollution discharge amount of such river reach to achieve the target for corresponding improvement of water bodies' carrying capacity, it is recommended to accelerate the construction of sewage systems, and to promote the setup for drainage water purification facilities in important reaches or tributaries, regular septic tank cleaning, strengthening water pollution source control inspection, propelling the setup for regional biogas centers and agricultural land use of biogas residue and biogas slurry ... and other pollution remediation measures and plans. It is expected, by means of gradually promoting the aforementioned measures by 2021, to improve the BOD concentration of Old LTK Hsihu Bridge monitoring station from moderate pollution to mild pollution, NH3-N concentration from gross pollution to moderate pollution; however, it is required to constantly promote with relevant measures to gradually improve water quality.
2. Practically Implement Strengthening Management of Water Pollution Source Permits
(A) Assistance for All Kinds of Permit Applications and On-Site Review Operation.
825 cases for permit application review have been completed in the Project. Analyzing based on types of cases upon application, surface water discharge permits account for the majority (34.4%), up to a total of 284 cases, followed by the simple discharge permit documents accounting for 25.7%, up to a total of 212 cases; the statistical analysis shows that according to the review methods, application cases in writing review method account for the majority (81.3%), up to a total of 671 cases, followed by “written examination + on-site review”. The average number of days accounting for the majority is those that need to spend 21 to 30 days to review a single case from the time the case sent to the Bureau to the time the case completed, totaling 77 cases (27%), followed by those spending 16 to 20 days totaling 65 cases and accounting for 22.8%.
(B) Providing Hotline, Helping with Legal Advice and Guidance on Application Service.
The Project has assisted in handling a total of 1,174 advice cases referring to some enterprises making a single query and asking relevant questions at the same time. 1,301 items have been replied to in 1,174 advice cases. In terms of consulting months, advice cases in August and September account for the majority of regular reporting. Most enterprises make queries before July’s reporting and commence enquiries on matters of additions and corrections during the review period between August and October after review and additions and corrections requested by the Project staff, therefore, cases of advice and related regular enquiries increase in August and decline in September and October. Collection of water pollution control fees begins in July, cases of queries increase because the Project assists the Environmental Protection Bureau in holding the explanation session regarding Water Pollution Control Act and Water Pollution Control Fees on July 23, therefore the inquiry frequency lowered in August, however it monthly increased in September and October perhaps arises from failure to reconfirm and upload the payment receipt to the system after reporting and the follow-up payment, which led to a query by telephone about reasons of unsuccessful payment. Frequency of counseling about automatic continuous monitoring facility accounted for the majority in May and June and declined monthly of which the reason might be the enterprises’ understanding more of the relevant provisions after the Project provided advice of the automatic continuous monitoring facility.
(C) Handling Wastewater (Sewage) Testing and Reporting Documents Review and Filing.
The Project has helped to complete 2,102 units of periodic reporting filing and auditing review operations including 28 units of quarterly reporting, 2,051 units of semi-annual reporting and 23 annual reporting. Out of them is a total of 1,405 written reporting objects, 697 network reporting objects, and a total of 48 units which have not been approved yet after case-by-case confirmation following the Project’s review assistance and counseling guidance in the reporting period of which the reason is that some enterprises fail to pre-report pursuant to the provisions or the reporting water quality exceed effluent standards and needs to wait for the re-sampling testing company to reschedule the sampling and testing before such enterprises can complete corrections.
(D) Handling the Water Pollution Control Related Computer Databases and Document Management.
During the performance period, the Project helped to complete archiving data types including 47 cases (2%) on water pollution control, 1,223 cases (46%) on initiative reporting water pollution documentation and 1,371 cases (52%) on inspection and penalty data archiving. To distinguish based on the type of documentation, regularly monitored detecting record accounted for the majority which was up to 1,045 cases in “initiative reporting water pollution sources documentation”; 952 cases of inspection record accounted for the majority of “Inspection and Penalty Data”. The month accounting for the majority of total number of filing was September, 2015, mainly focusing on initiative reporting water pollution sources documentation of which the regularly monitored detecting record accounted for the majority which was up to 523 cases. For archiving data, the 1,045 cases of regularly monitored detecting record accounted for the majority of which the spending time was up to a total of 1,045 hours; for various licensing documentation application and water pollution control measures plan, the single piece took the most time, an average of which took about five hours. The total numbers of hours were 700 and 65 respectively.
(E) Ensure Correctness of Periodically Reporting Unusual Items of Water Pollution Sources Control Database.
EPA quarterly commences licensing database, periodic inspection of data and anomaly analysis. Targeting the anomaly analysis item, it screens incomplete and doubtful data list in database and makes corrections to types and characteristics analysis on irregular data screened by EPA after downloading the irregular data. In the event of the list which can not be corrected, the enterprise shall describe reasons for the anomalies depending on the actual situation of the scene after the notice issued by the Environmental Protection Bureau. The total of 229 irregular cases for the first quarter has been corrected with a completion rate of 100%; the numbers of irregular cases and anomaly fields for the second quarter respectively were 269 and 549 of which 509 fields have been corrected with a completion rate of 92%.
(F) Holding Water Pollution Control Laws and Regulations Explanation Sessions.
The Project has completed four explanation sessions of which the briefings include two major themes—“Water Pollution Control Act amendments description” and “Water Pollution Control fees collection methods”, hoping to make the participants understand the ordinance amendments, to practically implement the spirit of water pollution control and to strengthen the advocacy of water pollution control fees collection related provisions and the follow-up review on the contents of water pollution control fee collection in order to improve declaration efficiency for wastewater treatment and water pollution control fees. The four explanation sessions had an attendance rate of 52%～ 65% for which the primary reason was that the people in business, one after another, telephoned and indicated that they had already participated in previous water pollution fees collection advocacy briefings convened by EPA.
3. Industrial Wastewater Check and Management
The Project has completed a check on three units of industrial zone sewage plant project, 191 units of put-under-management enterprise inspection, 55 units / times of enterprise inspection on pollution hotspots, 30 units / times of water pollution fees collection targets and 133 points / times of storm sewers patrol in industrial zone. The Project has completed the reporting rate of 100% with a number of 25 penalty units amounting to NT$ 2,630,000 as of now.
4. Water Pollution Control Fees Collection Matters
(A) Pro Forma Costs of this County’s Water Pollution Control
Since the water pollution control fee for May and June is collected under generalized system of preferences getting 50% off, it is estimated that a total of NT$ 729,630 could be collected. The fee for July–December in the first year (2015) will be NT$ 2,122,791 with a collection rate of 70% as of the time when livestock transaction levy begins in the third year. The majority of enterprises in this County included heavy metal items, so that the water pollution control fees amounted to NT$ 5,895,499, however, Changhua County’s livestock industry contains numerous restricted enterprises, the collected amount reached NT$ 11,637,777 accounting for about 66% of the total even without heavy metal items. It is estimated that a total of NT$ 17,533,276 could be collected. Public sewerage, other designated areas or spaces dedicated sewer systems and community special sewer system started collection in the fourth year of which although the levy of the fourth year accounted for 80% totaling NT$ 379,097 only, that was much less compared to many enterprises and livestock industry owing to the fact that there were only 30 restricted enterprises belonging to the above listed sewer system in this County. Pro forma estimates conducted by the Project show that it is estimated the collected amount could reach NT$ 25,591,326 when the sixth year collection quota accounts for 100%, this County maximum allotment is NT$ 15,354,796 and a minimum allotment of NT$ 8,956,964 in accordance with the central and local water pollution control fees allocation regulations.
(B) Water Pollution Fees Collection Targets
This work has completed 30 units on enterprise inspection from the expanded procurement contracting day (July 20) as of October 29. The inspection includes record integrity check, check on volume of wastewater and water samples quality testing report, and, the EPA personnel collects on site raw wastewater and effluents for analysis. ution act and received the immediate penalty on the spot. The remaining 11 units’ raw wastewater and effluents were consistent with the water quality permit and were in compliance with effluents standards. The Project calculated the amount of the fee reported by the people in business based on the reported water quality and quantity from January to June in 2015, and then calculated the payment due according to the Paragraph 4 of Article 12 and Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1 of Article 11 in Water Pollution Control Fees Collection Regulations on the results towards the collection target, as a result whether the collection target should make a supplementary payment and the payment amount required would be derived after comparison and verification. The aggregated results of the analysis showed that 17 units were required to make a supplementary payment of water pollution fees, and four units’ amount was higher than NT$ 25,000, three units’ amount was higher than NT$ 5,000, the rest was less than NT$ 5,000. The total amount of supplementary payment was up to NT$ 210,563.
5. Ensure Normal Connection between Continuous Water Monitoring System (CWMS) Objects and Environmental Protection Bureau
The County’s currently five connection objects in effluents monitoring items include suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, hydrogen ion concentration pH, water temperature, conductivity and volume of water. From the Project start date April 29 to October 29, the monitoring rate of connection object in Lukang zone of Changhua Coastal Industrial Park was the lowest. Its monitoring rate in April was only 89.6 ~ 90.8%, and only 89.6 ~ 90.6% in September as well, while the major irregularity objects’ connection rate of 99.5% from August to October has stabilized. Monitoring rates of water quality and quantity for each item reached 100 percent, and that of the remaining connection objects were more than 90%.
There were 16 times of unusual circumstances during the Project. The cross-sectional program developed by the CWMS personnel was irregular during the period between April 29 and October 29, resulting in the failure of data uploading to the IPTV Channel Server during such period. The Project personnel actively contacted EPA personnel in charge of such matter, information room staff, CWMS personnel and EPA contractor personnel to repair the system, and, after the repair, actually confirmed that each enterprise had re-uploaded the monitoring data of the period, it was confirmed on October 29 that all enterprise data had been normally uploaded. The Project personnel immediately notify the enterprise of the fact and confirm the causes for anomalies when finding irregularities after daily check, and sustain attention on the repair situation after reporting to the personnel in charge, and inform the contractor staff after completion of repair.
