The main task of the project is to assist Environmental Protection Bureau of Pingtung County Government (PTEPB) and to administer the various programs scheme, subjects and methodologies. By means of the aforementioned implementation, we were able to review on what subjects have been finished over the period of time and helped EPB deal with Air Pollution (AP) agendas and minutes to boot, supervising the integration of the air quality improvement. Besides, the perspectives that the EPB are marching toward better Air Quality (AQ) should again be aligned with our schedule including long-term, mid-term, or short-term goal as a proposition in the control of the AQ in the future. The duration of the project is from 1st March, 2018 to 28th February 2019. The summary of implementation is as follows.
According to the pollutants measured at the Air Quality inspection stations at Pingtung County in year 2018, the number of days of which poor air quality of O3 and PM2.5 were reported is 257 in total. It is 68 days less than those measured between January and December 2017. Mainly are due to the reduction of O3 by 10 days, and the reduction of PM2.5 by 58 days. From January to February 2019, the total number of poor air quality AQI days in Pingtung County was 67 days, increasing 9 days from the same period in 2018. The main reason was that the number of days of PM2.5 increased by 13 days, and those of O3 decreased by 4 days. In terms of O3, the main reason is that the amount of O3 exceeded for more than eight hours. Currently, O3 and PM2.5 are the main indicative pollutants in the Pingtung County. When the air quality becomes worse, we will activate the reporting system and report back via the adoption mechanism of each inspection station as well as the tracing of major pollution sources. We will reinforce the controlling actions after poor air quality was reported back. In 2018, there were 207 days reported in total, and the reducing amount is 414.60 metric tons for TSP, 2.38 metric tons for SOX, 5.25 metric tons for NOX, and 10.45 metric tons for NMHC. On the whole, the reporting rate of poor air quality is 97.2%.
In 2018, there are 31 projects of improving air quality conducted by Pingtung County. They can be categorized into stationary sources, mobile sources, fugitive sources, integrated management and monitoring, and local characteristic research plans. The control strategy is based on the Pingtung County Air Pollution Prevention and Control Plan (shown in Figure I below). The key points include strengthening local characteristics and improving main issues, collaborating with the EPA to promote various operations. In line with the performance of the EPA’s performance display, the air pollution improvement performance indicators this year focused on: 1) cross-unit control reduction action plan, 2) agricultural waste reduction and combustion circular economic action plan, 3) stationary sources permit, total amount control and pollution reduction action plan, 4) catering fume control action plan, 5) motorbike pollution management action plan, 6) enhanced diesel vehicle control performance action plan, 7) action plan of capture all at once, 8) eight aspects action plan of river dust control. In addition, there are Pingtung County agricultural waste reduction and combustion circular economy plan, comprehensive technology monitoring in dredging area-combating PM2.5, Chaozhou air quality maintenance area control plan, strengthening air pollution control for folk festivals, upgrading five major items of Gaoping River dust improvement, and so on.
There are also some performances in the implementation of the plan this year , including: 1) the first phase completion of the stationary source of the specified pollutant reduction target to reduce the substantial reduction of 4 pollutants of about 2,321 metric tons, 2) the promotion of the replacement of 21 boilers or switch to low-pollution fuels, 3) the establishment of eco demonstration food and beverage street in the shopping area of the Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Neipu Township, 4) the achievement of the highest locomotive inspection rate 74.57% ever in the county over the years, 5) the amount of two-stroke locomotive replacement reached 14080, 6) the number of electric motor cars has grown to 7025, which is 94% higher than the number of 3,622 vehicles in 2017, 7) 7 new electric buses has gone on the road, 8) for the control of air quality purification area in the Kengtung area, the failure rate of the tour bushas lowered from 2.85% in 2017 to 0% in 2018 (inspection all passed), 9) the failure rate of the uninspected locomotive has lowered from 5.7% in 2017 to 3.8% in 2018. Further, the promotion of proper disposal of agricultural waste, the coverage area has grown from 8,381 hectares in 2017 to 8,712 hectares in 2018. The availability of the short-term corp (wax apple) has increased from 90% to 93%; and the availability of the long-term corp has increased from 78% to 86%. The case of open burning in the Nanjhou township has decreased from 41.4% in 2016 to 13.94% in 2018, with improvement rate by 66%. Promote the control of gravel dredging area, the reduction rate of dredging projects is 72.04%, (that is 1.74% higher than the same period in 2017 (70.3%). The seizure rate of violating dredging dump truck improved by 322% compared with 2017. There are 140 sandstone field found defects by the UAV inspection, the pollution detection rate in the gravel dredging area increased by 167% compared with the past.
From the period of 2018 to 2019 February, the scheduled progress of each project is between 53.8－100% towards completion. The total implementation rate is 89.3％, and the analysis of achievement is graded as 92.2. Until the end of December, the reducing amount of PM10, PM2.5, SOx, NOx and NMHC is 4075.84、896.23、27.65、105.25及269.33 metric tons, reaching 100% of the target. In promoting air quality purification area, we have accomplished the assessment of 120 purification areas, and reached 13.005 hectares of newly built green spaces as well as bare lands improvement via subsidies and the implementation of bare land planting projects in four areas.
In addition, in order to further explore the cause of pollution, and also to analyze and improve controlling performance, the focuses this year will be to reinforce the analysis of information, revise the emergency response brochure, carry out survey of the public’s satisfaction, observe innovative methods from other counties or cities, cooperate with the promotion work in Kaohsiung, promote low-pollution transport, and plan green networks.
