In order to prevent soil and groundwater from contamination, the local competent authority must regularly investigate and exam the quality of soil and groundwater in its own jurisdiction and deal with people’s pleading. Thus, Yilan Environmental Protection Bureau (the “EPB”) has been continuously monitoring the potential sites of contaminated soil and groundwater in its own authority region, including industrial complex and communities in Longde, Lize, and Meizhou as well as underground storage tank (UST). Additionally, the work of inspection, verification and control measures has been implemented over restrained contaminated area. The EPB has commissioned Taiwan AECOM Co., Ltd (the “team”) to be the chief executive of “2016 Project of investigating and verifying contamination for soil and groundwater in Yilan County” (the “project”). All scopes of work in the project has been accomplished and every assignment was flawlessly on schedule. Hereby the final report is submitted to the EPB following its inspection over the work.
In this year there are 10 sites where the contamination in soil exceeds the control standard, 6 of which are waste-recycling sites. Also, the Dongao cement site of Luckygroup Co., Ltd, open field at Nanfangao, landfill site of wasted battery at Toucheng and land No.1009 hill bulk SA-05 (unrestrained) at Suao town are all found contaminated. It is suggested that the EPB could maintain the investigation over the activities of waste-recycling business and shipyard.
For the investigation in farmland applying manure as fertiliser, through data collection it is confirmed that the heavy metal content in manure might exceed the “Standards of each type of fertiliser” stipulated by Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. The recommendation is that the negotiation between the EPB and agricultural units is necessary to effectively control the concentration of heavy metal in manure from its source.
The team fulfilled the appraisal for 9 monitoring wells on the days of July 11th and 12th 2016. Among these the well G00034 was found full of unmovable stones and rocks at its bottom during maintenance (probably no bottom cap or damaged). It is suggested that the EPB terminate the monitoring well and re-install a new one.
By large for all historic data, on-site monitoring wells giving higher ammonia concentration are mostly located at the industrial complex of Longde, perimeter of Yilan-city landfill site and the bank of Dongshan River. On the other hand, the higher concentrations of iron, manganese and arsenic are found at industrial complex of Longde, waterpark and the bank of Dongshan River. The monitoring results of groundwater of landfill sites indicate the general indexes identically exceeding the monitoring standards are such as total hardness, chloride salts, ammonia, total dissolved solids, manganese and iron.
The team has carried out the monthly inspection over restrained sites to have the progress of improvement and the latest condition in hand and evaluate the predicted effects for the site where the remediation plan has been accomplished. In this year there are totally 6 sites (land No. 805 in Dongshan, land No.1009 hill bulk SA-05 in Suao and land No.24, 25 in Wujie examined twice for each) that have been verified and meet the goals of improvement plan. Yet the data collected from the sites of Hongchailin and Lufang business still exceed the control standards.
Currently the team has been associate with EPB to complete the UST reports of Q3 in 2015 (from Sep to Dec), Q1 in 2016 (from Jan to Apr) and Q2 in 2016 (from May to Aug), with 100% of inspection. From the perspective of tracking results of abnormal addition, those gas stations such as Xinxing, Fucheng and Taishan are classified at C-level in potentiality analysis for no concern of future contamination that the tracking can be terminated; the second tracking in gas station at Zhong zheng S. Rd reveals no abnormality but it needs another tracking next year to ensure. The monitoring wells for soil vapour in NPC gas stations at Fuqian, Nansheng, Yichang, Zhanghong and Dongguashan are all well functional and the results show no value exceeding the regulatory standards.
There had been 50 lorries going through the examining work of soil-rock importing management from March to October in 2016. Amid the use of XRF screening, 24 selected samples were analysed for heavy metal content and the results indicated zero sample exceeding the monitoring standards of crop soil. The examining work of soil-rock importing management has been implementing for 2 years and most of the business owners or stack-holders have been precautious for those soil from unknown sources since their awareness of the EPB’s examination. Thus, with efficiently managing the investigating resources and funds, it is recommended that the EPB can particularly rely on XRF screening for determination in which the sample should be transferred to laboratory for standard analysis and further tracking if there was 1 element exceeding the monitoring standard.
In this there have been 3 open conferences for interpreting relevant Acts of prevention of soil and groundwater contamination (total audience number: 242), 7 educational sessions (total audience number: 626) and 18-hour training courses for EPB’s staff. The people involved in include civilians, business owners, students and staff from other authorities. The benefit of holding the conferences not only improves the civilian knowledge on soil and groundwater protection but also collects opinions from different perspectives for future reference.
The team has concluded the information and results from the investigation of soil and groundwater in Yilan and has kept poring over the concentration distribution of interest substances (Ammonia and Arsenic), heavy metal content in farmlands using manure fertiliser and contaminating potentiality of USTs. Presently those regions where the groundwater has higher concentration of Arsenic are Meizhou district, perimeter of Zhulin elementary school and the upstream area of Dongshan River; the spots with the concentration of Ammonia higher than the monitoring standards are located at Dongshan, Luodong, Yilan city and Jiaoxi, especially the Ammonia concentration in groundwater at Yilan landfill site, perimeter of Zhulin elementary school and the upstream area of Dongshan. In addition, the concentration status of Copper and Zinc in those farmlands using manure fertiliser clearly unveils the gravely contaminated area is at Datong village near Lanyang River and the concentration seems higher as tracking toward upstream area, which is believed highly related to the local agricultural activities. The classification for contaminating potentiality of USTs is graded in one to five and there are 2, 4, 5, 3 and 49 gas stations respectively sorted from high to low contaminating potentiality, according to which the future investigation can be activated.
In order to properly apply the funds in the future it is essential to adjust the monitoring frequency of on-site monitoring wells on the basis of collected information and assessment of historical data.
