The project “International Cooperation Project on Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation” has been carried out to fulfill the concept of the original idea for the international exchange on the issue of soil and groundwater by executing the plans in details. The major outcomes of this project are briefly summarized below:
1. A series of events, including a half-day event of “Steering Committee meeting of Working Group on Remediation for Soil and Groundwater Pollution of Asian and Pacific Region (ReSAG)”, with 9 international experts form 7 countries, a two-day workshop of “Workshop of Taiwan-US Environmental Protection Cooperation Project” in the topic of “Investigation and Mitigation of Vapor Intrusion”, with 285 participants, and a one-day site and culture tour, were held in Tainan during 2-7 December, 2018. In addition, the first ReSAG video conference call was hosted by Taiwan on 27 June, 2019, with the participation of representatives from 4 countries. The topics discussed include cooperation among member countries and the arrangement of video conference calls in the future.
2. “The ReSAG Training Workshop” was held, with 19 participants from 9 countries, from 17 to 24 March, 2019. To enhance the industry-government-academia interactions, the workshop was jointly organized with the workshop funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Several local industry experts from consulting companies were also invited join the event. Forty five participants from 11 countries joined these workshops. Besides, a seminar was held during the workshop and the participants from each country presented country report about the status of soil and groundwater protection and remediation.
3. The 9th Korea-Taiwan Soil ＆ Groundwater Steering Committee Meeting has been held in Seoul on 30 October, 2018, and 12 officers or experts from industry, government, and academia in Taiwan were invited. In terms of industry-academia exchange, six experts from industry and academia were invited to Korea to exchange two major topics related to “arsenic and mercury contamination management” and “petroleum pollution treatment technologies” on 19-22 December, 2019. On 16-20 April, 2019, six experts from the units authorized by the South Korean Ministry of Environment were invited to Taiwan to exchange on the two aforementioned topics.
4. The activities related to The 1st Steering Committee Meeting of Agreement between Taiwan EPA and Vietnam MONRE have been carried out on 16-20 September, 2019. A delegation of 10 officers and experts from Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Vietnam) was invited with a Deputy Director General as the leader. During the period of 28 October and 2 November, 2019, the Director General of Soil and Groundwater Remediation Fund Management Board, Taiwan EPA led a delegation of 13 officers and experts to Vietnam to participate in the 2nd Taiwan-Vietnam Steering Committee Meeting. The exchange topics focus on “protection of farmland contamination on investigation and remediation” and “groundwater arsenic-related contamination management”. In the 2nd Taiwan-Vietnam Steering Committee, both parties expressed their willingness to renew the Agreement between Taiwan EPA and Vietnam MONRE;
5. The activities related to “Workshop on Soil and Groundwater Contamination Site Investigation and Remediation” in Philippines have been held on 6-13 March, 2019. The workshop was held in Manila with 121 participants. After the workshop, the work group went to Marinduque Island of Philippines for performing environmental investigation, sampling and quick screening for pollution assessment. The second workshop was held in Vietnam at Central Palace Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City on 31 October, 2019 with 117 participants. On 1-4 November, 2019, the work group went to the potential arsenic contaminated provinces for performing site investigation, groundwater sampling and quick screening for pollution assessment. After completing the phase I environmental site assessment in these two countries, the environmental investigation reports have been provided to them as references for pollution improvement.
6. Two conferences, “CleanUp 2019” held in Adelaide, Australia, and “the 25th Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation and Preventive Management Countermeasures” held in Osaka, Japan, were selected to publish the comprehensive results of the EPA’s investigation on groundwater arsenic pollution in Taiwan and the application of self-continuous heat treatment technology to the treatment of heavy total petroleum hydrocarbons. The titles of published papers are “Natural Source Arsenic Contamination Management Strategies in Taiwan - Contamination Status, Novel Screening Tool and Precautions” and “Evaluation of Sustainability on the Sustainable Thermal Accelerated Remediation (STAR) for Soil Remediation- A Pilot Case Study on Heavy End TPH”, respectively.
