For the past few years, Taitung had been influenced by severe Windblown dust crisis because of the northeast monsoons and the typhoon outer-rim circulation. By the collaborative effort of Water Resources Agency and Taitung EPB, the dust has been suppressed prominently through the water-cover method. To prevent Windblown dust, Taitung EPB continued to execute the dust suppression program, Beinan River Windblown suppression program, and enhance the forecast alert system to shorten the contingency processing time which is conductive to dust suppression.
The dust forecast alert system collects the data from Weather Central Bureau, and analyzes the PM10 concentration in next 24 hours. As the concentration goes up to the awareness range(PM10≧100), staff member will go to Chunghua Bridge to confirm the dust emission and report to the LINE group. If emission occurs, the Windblown Dust Prevention Drills will immediately take action, ensure the air quality of Taitung county. With the effort of the program, Taitung county has obtained the prize of the best air quality in Taiwan, and invited by Taiwan-Netherlands communicate meeting with the subject of air pollution control discussion.
In the final report of the program, the overall progress is 100%, contains 8 categories, including: River Windblown Dust Monitoring analysis, which is collecting the weather data of Guanshan and Beinan River region to generalize the dust-prone emission area, it can be divided into severe impact area(Taitung downtown area and Guanshan)，moderate impact area(suburban of Taitung downtown, Beinan, suburban of Guanshan, Haiduan and Chishang), and slight impact area(Beinan, chulu and luye), helps to control the dust-prone area. To prove the effect of water-cover method, satellite photo shows the change of barren land, collect the rainfall, working days, average wind speed and PM10 concentration of working period. Through the auto survey station and LED monitor, provide the instant monitoring data. Refer to the result of water-cover method, there were 7 times of dust events happened in last year(2016), but the EPB took action rapidly to repair water-cover area, decreasing the barren land area to reduce the dust emission. With regard to environment clean-up, which is mainly targeted at the downtown of Taitung county to keep the street damp. In the dust-prone season, it is also used at the riverbed to avoid dust emission. To increase the participation, game experience has added to the advertising activities in the program, The questionnaire shows almost 80% thinks the Windblown Dust problem had improved and satisfied with the program. The program also use the LED information board to notify people the circumstance of the Windblown Dust. There are other cooperation matters, such as cooperate with EPA in windblown dust prevention, submit data to EPA for checking related information, etc.
