3. Abstract
The development of Kuokuang Petrochemical project was commenced as early as
in 1994. At that time, several places as Taoyuan, Jiayi, and Kaohsiung were
considered respectively to be the site. But due to strong protest of local people, the
project was interrupted and suspended. Five years later, Pindong county was taken
into consideration but failed too as denied by the then county Magistrate. Afterwards,
as invited by the then county Magistrate, Jiayi was considered once again, but also
failed by the protest of local people especially fishermen. In 2005, some politicians
of Yunlin County offered their warm invitation, but was rejected by then county
Magistrate. In 2008, Zhuobuoyuan, the county Magistrate of Changhua, expressed his
interest. Then, in June 2009, the environmental impact assessment of this project was
held, and on the same day, the Agency of Environment Protection declared that the
project was going to enter Phase II EIA. Thereafter, relative meetings of experts were
held for six times. The issues on the change of coastline, conservation of Taiwan pink
dolphin, health risk assessment, social economy impact assessment, greenhouse gases
emissions and water resources were discussed. It is concluded that: the proposed
location is not suitable for being too close to Zhuoshuei estuaries which may cause
floods; the project may accelerate extinction of Taiwan pink dolphins; together with
nearby Formosa Plastics Corp’s (FPC) sixth naphtha cracker complex would increase
the risk of reducing life span of local residents for 23 days; the estimated economic
benefits is about NT$36.5 billion which is much lower than the entire costs of
NT$56.9 to 112.1 billion; greenhouse gases emission will increase 12,000,000 tons
per year but increase only 0.4% GDP; In addition, the project would cause water
shortage for farmers. During EIA process, as caused by the incidents of great fire
of Formosa Plastics Corp’s (FPC) sixth naphtha cracker complex, Typhoon Morakot,
and inappropriate statement on Taiwan pink dolphin, the two counties adjacent to
Changhua strongly opposed Kuokuang project and Dadu river weir. A series of
campaigns was also lauched to ban the project, eg national petition by schloars,
doctors, writers and artists, students and businessmen; environemtnal trust for wetland
etc. Under such pressures, and after at least 24 times of expert meeting, EIA
committee of EPA was concluded on April 22, 2011 Earth Day, the project should be
either stopped or continued with some restrictive conditions. Thereafter, President Ma
announced that the project was called off, putting an end to the Kuokuang
Petrochemical Project。
Key words:Kuokuang Petrochemical Project、Taiwan pink dolphin、Zhuoshuei