The project aims to assist the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Pingtung County Government to administer the various programs scheme, subjects and methods. By reviewing what projects have been finished over time to assist the EPB in dealing with Air Pollution agendas and implementing the plan. So that to achieve the goal of improving air quality by effectively integrating the power of various projects. In addition, in line with the current capacity control plan and the total control plan promoted by the National Environmental Protection Agency, the air quality improvement should again be aligned with our schedule including long-term, mid-term, or short-term goal as a proposition in the control of the air quality in the future. The duration of the project is from May 5, 2021 to May 4, 2022. The executive summary of implementation is as follows.
In 2021, there are 22 projects of improving air quality conducted by Pingtung County. The pollution sources can be categorized into stationary, mobile, fugitive, 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 EPB to promote various operations. In 2021, we assisted EPB in promoting eight major projects to improve air quality. The annual average of PM2.5 were 15.4µg/m3, which has a 0.02µg/m3 decrease compare to previous year. Pingtung County and New Taipei City were the only two cities that PM2.5 has improved in 2021. There were 171 days that reported as AQI>100 in 2021, has a 27 days less compared to 2020. The rate of the bad air quality is 15.6% became a best record in recent years. According to the survey of the Public Opinion and Market Research Center from the Sun Yat-sen University entrusted in 2021, people’s perception of overall air quality is satisfying has reach to 81% increase of 4% compared to the previous year. The eight major projects include:
1.The “Nighthawk Early Bird” project has evolved again. EPB set the station for checkpoint and the consulting scholar team. EPB checked 1,438 livestock farms for water and air pollution. 178 tickets sent out increase 218% compared to 56 tickets last year. Animal husbandry complaint reports have 378 cases dropped 46% compared to previous year,702 cases.
2.The motorcycle pollution management plan is to eliminate high-pollution motorcycles and to promote low-pollution vehicles. There are 22,517 motors have been eliminated during the term 1 to 4. The total number of registered electric motorcycles reached 17,602, the highest number registered without Taiwan’s six special municipalities.
3.Southern Pingtung Checkpoint for diesel vehicles has start operating on August 5, 2021. There were 3,263 Diesel Vehicles Management Seals approved in 2021, a 386% increase compared to 2020.
4.Hua Qiao Market in Donggong created a green dining area and the equipment has all updated to kitchen hood system to reduce smoke and soot.
5.The intelligent system monitors open-air burning and optimizes diversified agricultural waste treatment. The recycling rate for crop disposal has a record high which includes long-term crops 89% and short-term 97%. There were only 18 complaints in 2021 which is 50% less than 36 cases in 2020.
6.EPB built the first environmentally friendly Ghost Money Burner in the country for citizens. The annual processing capacity is 592 tons in 2021. The amount is about 2.2 times higher than previous year, 273 tons.
7.The action plan for air pollution control in Pingtung County Sand and Dredging Zone, using diversified scientific and technological monitoring equipment to increase the improvement rate of pollution. There were 146 illegal cases recording by CCTV which is a 57% less than previous year. The data shows that the average of PM10 in September to December is 40.5µg/m3 which is 23% lower than previous year. The street dust loading has decrease by 24% and cleanliness of the roads increased by 15.1% compared to the previous year.
8.EPB established a cross-unit squad for dust reduction on the road. The target of the squad is to maintain and increase the cleanliness to 94% of A class by integrated all the machine and human power in the county for road cleaning.
According to the pollutants measured at the Air Quality inspection stations at Pingtung County in 2021, the number of days which was poor air quality of O3 and PM2.5 was reported 171 days annually. It is 27 days less than previous year. Mainly are due to the increase of O3 by 62 days and the reduction of PM2.5 by 35 days. Currently, O3 and PM2.5 are the primary indicative pollutants in Pingtung County. When the air quality gets worse, the reporting system will be activated and send back the data via adoption mechanism from each inspection station and the major pollution sources. The controlling actions start to reinforce after poor air quality was reported. In 2021, 173 days were reported, and the reducing amount of each was 294.71 tons of TSP, 6.08 tons of SOX, 5.18 tons of NOX and 41.19 tons of NMHC. Overall, the rate of poor air quality is 98.3%.
From the current year, the scheduled progress of each project is between 50~100% towards completion. The total implementation rate is 96%, and the analysis of achievement is graded as 93.1. Until the end of December, the reducing amount of PM10, PM2.5, SOX, NOX and NMHC is 496.24, 265.82, 39.45, 312.59 and 269.41 tons, reaching 100% of the target. In promoting air quality purification areas, we have accomplished the assessment of 118 purification areas. There are newly built green spaces and bare land improvement via subsidies and planting projects in 0.2436 hectare.
In addition, to further explore the cause of pollution, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of control, the main tasks of this year focus on implementing various air pollution control works and regional air quality deterioration prevention, strengthening air quality environmental load data analysis, formulating the air pollution preventing plan proposal, conducting the survey of public satisfaction for air pollution control task, cooperating with the promotion work in Taiwan's Southwest Air Quality Control Area, establishing Air Quality Purification Zones and promoting low-emission vehicles, enhancing the control of achievements, as well as undertake green network planning and promotion.
