Examination, Control, and Reduction Counseling Plan since its initiation date from March 15, 2006 to March 14th, 2007, is to continue Year 2005’s related plan to execute examinations and inspections of flute, border, and sulfur content in liquid fuel, to conduct examinations and regulation compliance inspections of gas stations, to conduct regulation compliance inspections of specific industries, to organize routine
examinations and inspection filing systems, to monitor inspections, to conduct
regulation compliance inspections of spread source and storage yard, to carry out
inspections and control of food industries, to follow up on petition cases, to
conduct general survey examinations of factories, to give policy promotional
seminars, and to work with Mid-Taiwan Air Quality Region Execution Organization,
and other related work.
In order to improve Environmental Protection Administration’s assessment grade of this plan, a new method was proposed in 2006 to inspect Taichung County gas stations by using digital cameras to record the inspection process of the gas filling process conducted by gas station operators. The main purpose is to provide effective related evidence for the gas station owners and operators to examine, to clarify and to assign responsibility. When discovered certain gas station operators had forced extra gas on consumers, persuasion notices were given to those operators for warning. If second violation has been discovered, the gas station in question would be processed and reported judicially according to the related administrative process. This year, 8 gas stations were found to be involved in situations where gas were forced on consumers, out of which 1 gas station has been reported to the authority. However, fewer persuasion notices were given this year compared to last year.
The plan execution team had found all inspection results were within the emission standards for the sulfur content examination and inspection of flutes and borders. When 50 public and private facilities were inspected for sulfur content in liquid fuel with sulfur, 2 organizations with sulfur contents higher than the allowed standard, were reported and followed up with improvement assessment. For food industries, inspections were conducted on-site, in order to investigate fume and smoke emission and to follow-up on facilities with serious pollution to provide counseling. The inspection results showed 81.8% of food facilities did not have post-process equipments or plans, because of cost issues and loop holes on current regulations. Increased counseling and follow ups were given to these organizations to improve their self-awareness in order to reduce overall fume and smoke pollution.
Also, to reduce volatile organic matter spread pollution, gas-to-oil ratio examinations were conducted in 60 gas stations. Out of 577 gasoline grease guns tested, 95% had results within the allowed gas-to-oil ratio. Gas leakage examinations were conducted in 15 gas stations. Only 1 gas station had excessive gas leakage result. Fourteen gas stations tested all had results within the gas station gas recycle management control standard, therefore creating a compliance rate of 87%. In the regulation compliance inspection of specific industries, 40 sites with results not in compliance of regulation standards, were inspected and given follow-up counseling. For routine site declarations, 625 businesses were processed, reviewed, and filed according to the businesses and industries specified in Public Notice Number 1, Public Notice Number 2, and Taichung County regular routine inspection and control public announcement.
To effectively manage and control air pollutant discharges from storage yards, 100 pollutant discharge compliance inspections were given. The team also helped some businesses to extend their permits and to start public roads adoption processes. Inspections of the arc furnaces and scrap iron yards were conducted according to the BACT standard. Twenty-two harbor area spread pollution inspections were completed. The overall compliance rate for the arc furnaces and scrap iron yards had increased from the pre-counseling percentage of 89.2% to the current percentage of 93.1%. Also, according to the updated regulations and compliance standards on the arc furnaces and scrap iron yards published in June 26th, 2006, truck route inspections and controls were also initiated. On August 7, 2006, Feng-Shin Steel Incorporated was found not in compliance of the new regulation, since its trucks were emitting pollutants in air during its operation in their scrap iron yard. After citations were given, Feng-Shin had added a reinforced concrete road of 400 square meter to their site to reduce their pollutant emission by 0.719 ton per year.
With regard to the reductions of air pollutants, improvements in the fuel consumption in the process and plans to increase gas-to-oil compliance rate of gas stations were initiated for sand mills and old boilers located within the county. TSP is reduced by 70.1 ton per year; SOx and NOx were reduced by 42.4 ton per year and 26.6 ton per year respectively, and VOCs was reduced the most - by 137.4 ton per year.
To follow Environmental Protection Administration’s pollution control direction, 254 of all types of illegal factories were surveyed and inspected. Five factories, that were found to be obvious sites of air pollutants, were processed and followed-up with application of inspection control plans. For serious odor petitions, 5 cases were investigated. 70 cases were followed-up with improvement counseling. The improvement rate of the petition cases was 55.3%. The 5 sites that failed to provide immediate improvement were reported to the according authority. To sustain regulation compliance promotion campaign and to achieve the purpose of effective control, the following 3 events were held: The Volatile Organic Matter Pollution Control and Emission Standard Seminar, The Kaohsiung Harbor and Proximity Harbor Industrial Area Observation Tour, and The Fixed Sources of Pollution, Air Pollutant Examination, Control and Reduction Counseling technology Transfer Conference.
Also, to improve the team’s assessment grade and to further work with the bureau, other assignments that were given were all completed. During the plan’s execution period, the execution team was given different educational trainings in order to continuously improve their quality. So, the plan not only satisfied the quantitative goal requirements but also fulfilled the results qualitatively.
