Considering that the main rivers in Chiayi County (including Puzi River, Beigang River and Bazhang River) are classified as mixed polluted rivers of being polluted by industry, domestic sewage and animal husbandry, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Chiayi County had commissioned GEGA ENGINEERS & TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. to implement the " 2021 Audit Plan for the Inspection and Control of Water Pollution Sources and Sewage Charge Collection " (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”) as a means to promote the pollution prevention and control work in the river basin. During the Plan implementation period, the monitoring and management of important river sections and potentially polluted areas within the jurisdiction would be strengthened, and efforts would be made to promote pollution elimination and improve water pollution. The Plan was scheduled from January 01, 2011 to November 30, 2011, and the current work progress results (statistics from January 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021) were as follows: the planned work items included industrial pollution source licensing management, execution of industry inspection operations, investigation of unknown pipelines and hidden pipes, diagnosis and evaluation of wastewater treatment functions, collection of water pollution prevention and control fees, drinking water-related industry, water environment patrol team operation and guidance, domestic sewage pollution reduction propaganda, handling briefing sessions, and education and training of planners.
1. Permit management of industry pollution sources
316 permit review operations, 156 regular inspection application review and approval operations, 24 on-site inspection operations for permit reviews (new applications or cases involving functional changes) along with 2 secondary technician visa case inspection operations had been completed; and 636 water pollution inspection cases were filed, 316 permit documents were archived, and 12 punished cases were documented. In addition, for water pollution prevention and control measures and discharge permit (document) data, 180 cases of QA/QC comparisons were performed in the water pollution database, and 361 electronic operations were completed for permit application documents and existing industry data.
2. Inspection of industry waste and sewage discharge
There were 626 inspections and 10 in-depth inspections by experts and scholars, along with a total of 272 pollution sources were sampled, including 94 major pollution sources (electroplating industry/metal surface treatment industry/chemical industry/tanning industry / petrochemical industry). The deficiencies found in the audit are being continuously improved under the requirements and counseling institutions.
A total of 13 cases of illegal discharge or violation of the “Water Pollution Control Act” were seized, with the amount of punishment at NT$411,000; another 16 cases of continuous 24-hour water quality monitoring were completed for a total of 139 cases.
Among them, with regard to the cases of violation of the “Effluent Standards”, the pollution reduction was calculated according to the regular inspection discharge amount* (violation concentration - effluent standard concentration). The most seized cases this year were SS: 4,328 kg/Year, followed by COD: 3,500 kg/Year, NH3-N: 588 kg/Year, and the leas of BOD at 35 kg/Year.
3. Inspection and sealing of unknown and hidden pipelines
Two hidden and unknown pipelines were seized, all of which had been sealed and removed by the owner himself.
4. Functional diagnosis, evaluation, inspection or counseling for the wastewater treatment unit of regulated industry
Functional diagnosis and evaluation were carried out on 6 industry unites. The preliminary evaluation work was carried out on May 11, 12 and 14, experts and scholars were invited for re-evaluation work from July 28 to 30, the preliminary results report was submitted on September 17, and a negotiation meeting was held on September 30.
5. Handling Chiayi County's regulated industries (including animal husbandry) and the collection of water and sewage charges for the sewer system
The application payment period stipulated in the first phase of 2021was from July 1 to August 2 (according to the letter No. 1101066619 of the Environmental Protection Administration on 2021.05.21, yet it was postponed due to July 31 was a regular holiday,), later, because of the impact of the new crown pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic, the Environmental Protection Administration proposed to postpone the declaration and payment of water pollution prevention and control fees for various deadlines. That is, it was extended from July 1, 2021 to October 31, 2021. As of September 30, 2021, a total of 335 applications had been completed.
6. Handling the entrusted industrial zone verification
On September 24, the entrusted verification consultation meeting was held. The resolution part of the matters discussed at the meeting mainly includes asking the industrial zone to re-examine the discharge port for the industries in the zone and issue the approval documents for the discharge, and the follow-up permit document will be issued according to the document. In addition, regarding the monitoring of rainwater and sewers in the industrial zone, the management unit of the industrial zone was also requested to check the data exception occurred as soon as possible to avoid the expansion of pollution. Meanwhile, in response to the tightening of ammonia nitrogen in the discharge water, the management unit was also asked to guide the source reduction of the high ammonia nitrogen industry. In this regard, those with insufficient improvement effects would be included in the functional evaluation list. We hope that, through the above measures, the management of industrial zones could be strengthening and the sources of pollution could be effectively grasp.
7. Management of drinking water
In terms of industry related to drinking water management, 141 new cases of parcel number had been reviewed, 36 of which were located within the scope of drinking water protection areas, all of which had been issued to inform that the area was located in the protection area, and 12 polluting behaviors prohibited by the provision stipulated in Article 5 of “Drinking Water Management Act” shall not be carried ou; 488 samples of drinking water were inspected and collected, and the inspection report was submitted to the laboratory and logged on the drinking water management information network.
Statistics in the past three years showed that the N03-N (July-August) in Meishan Township presented high value situation. According to the research and analysis, such phenomena tended to occur after the spring tea and summer tea are picked along with the quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer used from mid-late May to mid-July which is usually conducted in the rainy season, leading to the occurrence of NO3-N in July-August.
8. Assist in handling the volunteer service plan of Chiayi County Water Environment Patrol Team
Attribute to the newly joined water environment patrol team of Shikou Junior High School in Shikou this 2021, the total number of patrol teams increased to 22 with the total number of volunteers to 722. On May 4th, the "National Excellent Water Environment Patrol Team Symposium" was held, and on May 13th, the "2021Annual Chiayi County Xunji River Featured Management Operations and Operation Contact Report" was held. Through various activities and meetings, the functions of the patrol team were improved, gathering the spirit of mutual help among the team. The Water Environment Protection Network has completed 21 pollution reports, 56 activities for cleaning streams and rivers, and 109 sessions of publicity and achievement review activities; in addition, in order to facilitate and accelerate the public to join the Water Environment Patrol Team, a total of 3 events were held, including the basic training and special training for volunteers from March 6 to 7, the basic training of volunteers on September 12, and another basic training and special training for volunteers from September 25 to 26.
9. Publicity on the reduction of domestic sewage pollution
3 domestic sewage reduction publicity and 10 public places domestic sewage reduction publicity videos have been played; on May 10th, the filming of the "Domestic Sewage Pollution Reduction and Household Water Saving Promotion" video was completed.
10. Handling briefings, education and training of planners and release of results
On April 8th, one session of education and training for inspectors was conducted, and on August 19th, the education and training for license reviewers was conducted, and three other activity results were released.
11. Effectiveness of water quality improvement
Based on the yearly statistics (2016-2020) of the units that violated the discharge water standards in accordance to their industries, the compilation results of continuous follow-up inspections of the discharge water in subsequent years, and the gap between the discharge water standards of their industries was regarded as the water quality improvement benefit, an assessment was conducted in the three major river basins in this county. Among them, the reduction of SS in the Puzixi basin was the largest at 1,257.3 kg/d, followed by the COD at 896.0 kg/d.
Watershed name
Reduction volume (kg/d)
BOD COD SS
Pu Zi River 27.5 896.0 1,257.3
Bazhang River 8.7 25.5 13.0
Beigang River 13.4 62.3 45.5
Total 49.6 983.8 1,315.8