Factories contaminating soil get suspended

The action was taken after instructions were given by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

Inspectors from the EPA and the county government's Environmental Protection Department also took soil samples at 100 sites from farmland within 300 meters from the plant.

The new soil tests will determine if there are other chemicals or heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, mercury, copper, nickel, lead and zinc in the soil.

The plant was also ordered to immediately start removing the stockpiles of clay-like steel slag which has been used to produce building materials and other products for industrial purposes.

Aside from receiving a fine for the contamination, the management of the factory was instructed to present measures for pollution control before being allowed to resume operations.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working on a plan to restrict the reuse of slag from steel mills and incinerators for consumer safety.

Meanwhile, more farmers in Houbi held rally in the morning against the negative media reports on all rice produced from the area.

They plan to stage a demonstration at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei today to protest perceived exaggerated reports by some media on the contamination incident.

The rice growers feared the overstatements about the incident by some media will affect the sales of their rice products despite officials from the Council of Agriculture (COA) having assured consumers that no tainted rice has been distributed onto local markets and cadmium will stay only in the soil rather than end up in the rice grains.

The farmers said they plan to file a lawsuit against one of the major daily papers for allegedly having harmed their business by playing up the contamination case.

The particular paper said in what it claimed as an exclusive report that soil at nearby rice paddies in Houbi was contaminated with arsenic 13 times higher than the allowed limit.

Some farmers said food distributors and dealers have stopped placing orders for their rice mainly because of the media reports.

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