Water pollution control policies

Under administering of important projects, such as the TanShui River remediation, the Erchong Floodway landscape, indemnifying for pig farm demolish at five major river basin and managem

Water pollution control policies, remediation

problems and challenges

Horng-Guang, Leu1 1.Director General, Department of Water Quality Protection, Environmental Protection Administration, Government of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

As the industry development in 70’s Taiwan makes the brilliant achievement in economy, the environment pollution problems grows worse day by day According to the raising requirements of environment quality for people, our country established the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan in 1987 to be the overall planning institution of environmental protection After the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan established, related environment policies were developed actively and a series of water pollution prevention strategy were spread out through these years Under administering of important projects, such as the TanShui River remediation, the Erchong Floodway landscape, indemnifying for pig farm demolish at five major river basin and management programs of near future river basin and ocean in Taiwan area, the pollution of water quality in our country has been improved step by step In recent years, in order to continually operate with river basin wholly environmental protection program and ensure sustained development and utilization of environmental ecology, the River and Ocean Water Quality Conservation and Improvement Project were also carried out According to the heavy-polluted area in the middle and lower reaches, diversification pollution improvements procedures, such as ecological regulating watercourse and wastewater recycle were carried out to promote effectively the water quality in the river basin

1 Introduction

“Water Pollution” means that pollutants (materials, organism and energy) get into the water and alter its quality and affect the normal purpose of water or endanger the nation health and life environment Water pollution almost resulted from human factor and mostly sustain For example, general economic activity, such as factory operation and reconstruction of engineering development, et., al As a result of high population density in Taiwan region, plenty emission of point source pollution, such as domestic sewage、 industrial wasted water, stock farming wasted water; nonpoint source pollution, such as agricultural water conserving or ground scour and so on are would all bring about aggravation of the water quality of rivers, lakes and ocean Thus, we must fully understand the pollution source and take multiple procedures, such as prevention procedure from fountainhead, controlling appropriately and effectively management to improvement water quality efficiently

2 Pollution Source and Current Conditions

The main pollution sources of water quality in Taiwan region are three: domestic sewage, industrial wasted water and stock farming wasted water Base on the statistics analysis in the past three years (in year 92, 93 and 94) in terms of outcome volume, volume

of emission and volume of reduction, undoubtedly, the outcome volume of industrial wasted water has the largest amount to be the first about 58% to 65%; the outcome volume

of domestic sewage and stock farming wasted water is the second and third about 19% to 24% and 15% to 18% respectively As a result of enterprises units administrating the management of industrial wasted water and stock farming wasted water according to water pollution control regulation and related act in recent year, the volume of emission is merely about 24% to 33% and 20% to 26% In respect of domestic sewage contrariwise, due to the prevalence ratio of sewer raised slowly so the volume of emission is high to about 47% to 50% and to be the first place to become the major source of water pollution in Taiwan area The detail statistic information about three major water pollution sources could be seen in Table1

Table1 the statistic information of three major water pollution sources

estimate by BOD5 Unit：Ton/D

Ton/Day Year Total

Amount Domestic Sewage

Industrial Wasted Water

Stock Farming Wasted Water

92 3,745 901 (24%) 2,169 (58%) 675 (18%)

93 4,223 900 (21.3%) 2,650 (62.8%) 673 (15.9%) Outcome

volume

94 4,673 908 (19.4%) 3,046(65.2%) 719 (15.4%)

92 1,365 685 (50%) 332 (24%) 348 (26%)

93 1,343 675 (50.3%) 321 (23.9%) 347 (25.8%) Volume of

emission

94 1,367 650 (47.5%) 448 (32.8%) 269 (19.7%)

Volume of

reduction

Reduction

Rate

Since the domestic sewage is the main source of water quality pollution in our country and public sewer systems is the best way to improve domestic sewage, construction of public sewer systems in our country were conducted to improve the pollution of domestic

sewage in the river; among this, the clean water project TanShui River Pollution

Remediation Early Project conducted by the Executive Yuan in 28th, Jan., 1988 had the great reputation; otherwise, the Environmental Protection Administration established the TanShui River Pollution Remediation Action Group which combined with multi-department to supervise and coordinate the implementation of programs; in all of the

projects, the construction of sewer systems in suburbs of Taipei is the major project; the PaLi Sewage Treatment Plant in this system which designed volume to treatment wasted water is 132 Ton/ Day is the important indicator of domestic sewage improvement in Taipei region

In the past 17 years that conduct the construction of sewer systems, ratio of prevalence increases from 3% to 13.07% (see Table 2) and go forward slowly with promotion ratio 10.07% In consideration of the prevalence ratio is the measurement indicator of international competition ability, according to the international competition ability assessment reported by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in

2003, our country has the rank of 24 among 30 evaluated countries with over 2,000 ten thousand population In order to improve our international competition ability, Executive Yuan ratified the Challenge 2008 –National Development Plan at 31st, May 2002 and subsumed the sewer systems into the sub-project the Water and Green Construction Plan Executive Yuan draft the Increasing Investment in Public Construction regulations in 2003 and estimated to take another 5 years investing in conduction of the Ten New Major Infrastructure Projects with 5,000 hundred million dollars; otherwise, listed the sewer systems construction in the double investment item It was expect that the prevalence ratio

of public sewer systems would be elevated to 22.1 % and the total wasted water treatment ratio would be elevated to 32.0 % at the end of the year 2008

3 3 3 3.05 3.1 3.15 3.2 3.4 3.8

5.06 6.75 7.2

8 10.1 10.87

12.4 13.07

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

94年7 月

年度

Fig.1 Prevalence ratio of public sewer system over the years The number of river in Taiwan is 129 and the majors of them are 21, the others are 29 Nowadays, the comprehensive measurement indicator of water quality in river is River Pollution Index (RPI) RPI value is an integral value calculated by the concentration value

of 4 parameters: dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids (SS) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) to determine the degree of pollution According to the RPI value to measurement the status of pollution level of the river in Taiwan region in the past three years as shown in Table 2

Table 2 Statistics degree of River Pollution Index (RPI) over years

The pollutants with nutritive salt, such as nitrides and phosphate which were exhausted into the lakes or reservoir highly cause the eutrophication of the lakes or reservoir “Eutrophication” means that in appropriate environmental conditions, such as suitable water temperature, pH values, sunshine and water level, the algae in the reservoir can abnormally proliferate or dead in bulk and dissolved oxygen would be depleted to bring about the deterioration of water quality in the reservoir when mass pollutants were exhausted into the reservoir General degree of eutrophication could be divided into three categories: eutrophic, mesotrophic and oligotrorhic according to the amount of the contained nutritive materials

Common eutrophication indicators is Carlson trophic state index (CTSI), it is calculated according to the concentration values in the three parameters of water, such as Transparency (SD) in the water, chlorophyll a (Chl-a) and total phosphorus (TP); furthermore, we could base on the counted index to determine the degree of eutrophication

of water in the reservoir In according with the CTSI, two of the nineteen major reservoirs

in Taiwan region are oligotrorhic reservoir in 2005; eleven reservoirs are belong to mesotrophic and six reservoirs are eutrophic; otherwise, in the 35 reservoirs on the island, two reservoirs are mesotrophic and 33 reservoirs are eutrophic; it is clear that the eutrophication level of the reservoirs in the island are very serious

The square measure in Taiwan is 35,960 square kilometer, among this; there is 10,330 square kilometer with the distribution of important underground water layer and occupy 29% of the total square measure The Water Resource Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs demarcated the whole land in our country into 10-groundwater region Groundwater

is one of important source and occupies 40% of the total water-consuming amount; groundwater recharge annually in whole country is about 40 hundred million cubic meter and annual withdrawal is 71 hundred million cubic meter The condition with over-withdrawing is serious and the over-withdraw water is used in cultivate water, agricultural water, industrial water and domestic water According to the monitoring results, shallow groundwater affected by household water, stock farming wasted water and had a high-contained level of organic matter and nitrides but the deep groundwater has good water quality Partial regions are due to inappropriately treatment with wasted or waste water permeating in the ground and pollute the groundwater, such as Tao-Yuan RCA incident, Tainan China Petrochemical case are belong to this It is clear that the qualified rate of ammonia nitrogen is obvious low, the reason, beside the influence of stock farming wasted water, is the high monitoring criterion

Table 3 Qualified rate of groundwater statistics every quarterly in 2005

Total hardness

Total dissolved solids

nitrogen

Nitrate nitrogen Sulfate Organic-nitrogen Total Arsenic

Total qualified rate

3 Important Projects over years

Look out up the worldwide trend and the raising requirements of environmental quality of people; our country established Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan in 1987 as the central competent authority overall planning the affairs of environment protection After the Environmental Protection Administration established, following by the conduction of the related environmental policies and a serious of river remediation strategies were carried out subsequently; among this, the TanShui River remediation, the Erchong Floodway landscape, indemnifying policy for pig farm demolish

at five major river basin and management programs of near future river basin and ocean in Taiwan region are the major work, illustrated briefly as follows:

3.1 Remediation of TanShui River

Early in the 1972, the government initiated drawing up every remediation projects

of the TanShui River; during the period of 1986 to 1987 in the Taipei area, due to the raising national income and the related voice of requiring the living environment quality were gradually to be paid close attention by the government At the same time, because of neighboring country the Republic of Korea in order to make arrangements for the Olympics, they actively remediate the Han River, contrarily; the TanShui River due to the heavy pollution of its’ middle and lower reaches and acquired the name of ‘Black’River Next, through the appeal from all walks of life, call the action of million people signature saving the TanShui River into play and bring about the close attention of the central government However in the early period, the government in consideration of slow spreading of the wiring by user of sewer systems, the low flow rate, insufficient dilute ability, the ground acquired hardly and economics factors, et al., adopted the rational bypass and optimized interceptor procedures; the wastewater and sewer were collected through sewer systems into the Pali Sewage Treatment Plant and ocean discharge after treatment However, the long-term remediation policy is still to use the bypass sewer systems as the major guiding principle

3.2 Erchong Floodway landscape

The Erchong Floodway is situated in the center of the Taipei city with a square measure of 324 hectare and flatness topography It is due to the dredging of the Taipei area

to build up However, because of the highly urbanization of Taipei area, as people enjoy the achievements of economics development, they do not acquire the deserved living environment quality The Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan in view of this, drawing Erchong Floodway with not only the original function of dredging but also endow with the responsibility of the times’ mission to improve the living environment quality for people living in Taipei city Consequently, to draw up the Erchong Floodway as

a place for sports, leisure and environment and ecology conservation in 1997 This project was ratified by Executive Yuan in 1997, Aug., the duration is five years and four months; total budge of this project is 14.7 hundred million

The premise of Erchong Floodway designed by Environmental Protection Administration is not to affect the dredging function The principle of design includes the maintenance of natural scenery and conservation, and doing best to avoid setting of artificial facilities, and making people much more knowing and enjoying the beauty of nature through the application of water quality modification engineer & ecology recovery plan In the non-marsh area of Erchong Floodway also constructed as multiple activity space, such as sporting area, parent-child activity area, show square, pedestrian mall, bicycle road, multi-function activity grass area, artificial channel, and parking lots, provide people to toss frisbee, play gate ball, play kite, jog, skate, skateboard, ride bicycle and fishing

In the end of year 2002, the uplands with square measure 324 hectare had been finished and public access They conclude: 1 SuWei section (with square measure 32 hectare); 2 LuChou section, in side of the protecting embankment west to the Cheng Gong Elementary School is the place for sport facilities with 17 hectare; 3 Marsh ecological area (93 hectare); 4 ChungHsin bridge (93 hectare); 5 ; 5 The uplands in Wugu Town left protecting embankment (22 hectare); 6 Ring bicycle road network system (27 hectare); 7

In the riverbank of TanShui River, the uplands in the section of LuChou to SanChung (24 hectare); 8 The embankment landscape construction (14 hectare); 9 The Wan-Shan-Tung section (12 hectare); 10 The floodway 6th way south and north section (6 hectare); 11 The floodway 10th way south and north section (29 hectare) and north section to the marsh area (31 hectare) and uplands, et., al

During the period of the administration with the project, the amount of waste clean away from the floodway is totally 1.5 ten thousand ton and it is obviously to all that the outstanding achievements in improving dirty and environmental maintenances Moreover,

it is play an important role on dredging and preventing flood From the opening of the Park,

it were recommended and appreciated from all walks of life People have more and more confidence and hope with our government The project originally has the ratified budge with 14.7 hundred million dollars but until the construction finished, it totally disburse 13 hundred million and 4.2 million dollars, saving the public funds with 1 hundred million and 2.8 million dollars

After completion of the Erchong Floodway, totally increased 324 hectare green ground,

whose area is equal to 12 DaAn Forest Parks And increased 50% of the average green ground area of each person of the Greater Taipei Metropolitan Area to 1.5 m2, which has been elevate largely, although lower than 13.9 m2 of New York, 12.7 m2 of Paris, and 8.7

m2 of Korea Not only benefits the 140 ten thousands residents around the Erchong Floodway, but also provide a good recreational space for 500 to 600 ten thousands people

of the Greater Taipei Metropolitan Area after the Taipei MRT Circular Line passing through here in future Under the consideration of coast safety and reasonable development

of land resource, and the principle of maintenance of natural scenery and conservation, set the facilities related to ecological recovery, such as marsh, channel & ponds, to provide people a natural ecological learning classroom, to be closed with nature and combine with sport, recreation, scenery, and local culture, serve as a good place for sport & recreation Additionally, can serve as a good sports ground for about 2 ten thousands students of the junior high schools and elementary schools nearby, to foster the master of nation in future Through landscape and remediation of the whole area, linked up the established green land

in river bank of TanShui River and finished the ring bicycle road network system, it increases the space of entertainment and leisure in holidays for the public, estimate the landscape performance, reorganization the dirty of environment, put improvement of Erchong Floodway landscape into effect and environment health of around area; that promote the public’s living environment quality substantially

3.3 The indemnifying plan for pig farm demolish legally at water source protection region

In order to implement the drinking water protection work, besides dividing the drinking water source protection region, what important is the paired basin remediation strategies and measures should be planned and executed completely and perfectly Therefore, the Executive Yuan Environmental Protection Administration according to the Drinking Water Source Quality Protection Outline Plan verified by Executive Yuan in 1998,12,01, promote the work of indemnifying plan for pig farm demolish legally at water source protection region in 5 important river sources and completed before 2001,12, to largely modify the quality of these 5 rivers which including KaoPing river The whole operation consumed 64 hundred million and 5,632 ten thousands and 3,660 dollars The outcomes of execution are shown as below:

(1)The work compensation plan of pig farm tear down legally in water source protection region totally completed 5,719 pig farms work compensation, subtract the unqualified and the application of balance with agriculture, forestry, fishing & animal husbandry, the total number of tear down is 4,960, and 4,919 had been tear down with the ratio of 99.2%

(2)the pig decreased ratio of each basin: The total sum of pigs of the 5 important basins decreased from 57.76 ten thousands in 2000 November to 0.9 ten thousands

in 2002 January, the total decreased ratio is 98.41% The decreased conditions of each basin are shown in table 4

Table 4 Pigs number reduced in every river basin Basin Pigs in 2000 November

(Ten thousands)

Pigs in 2002 January (Ten thousands)

Pig decreased ratio

(%) JiLong River

DaHan Creek

(3)Benefits of water quality modification and pollution reduction: The water quality

modification of each basin has exceeded the predicted objectives (Table 5) The

water quality modification efficacy of KaoPing river was the highest, with the

Ammonia-Nitrogen concentration lowering to 0.17 mg/L in 2001 December,

which reached the objectives and fitted with the Class II water body quality

standards (below 03 mg/L) From the data providing by the Water Corporation,

after completion of this plan, the Ammonia-Nitrogen concentration of KaoPing

area decreased 1/2 to 1/3, and the medication adding has decreased too in 2001

dried-up seasons

Table 5 The modification efficacy of each river basin

River Basin

Ammonia-Nitrogen Water Quality Modified Objectives (mg/L)

Ammonia-Nitrogen Water Quality (2001, 12) (mg/L)

Modified Ratio Objectives → In real

(%)

JiLong River

7.8→45.5 (have surpassed the objectives) DaHan Creek

22.6→77.4 (have surpassed the objectives) TouChian Creek 0.24→0.18 0.16 (have surpassed the objectives)25.0→33.3

(have surpassed the objectives) ZengWen Creek 0.95→0.42 0.19 (have surpassed the objectives)55.8→80.0

(have surpassed the objectives) (4)The Taiwan river basin & ocean management project

In order to remediate the river basin steps by steps, the Environmental Protection

Administration according to the first stage of the Taiwan River Basin & Ocean

Management Project verified by the Executive Yuan continuously promoted the river

pollution remediation Thereafter, we conducted the water quality protection comprehensively to accelerate the modification of river pollution And according to the modified management project verified by the Executive Yuan in 2001, selected 13 important rivers which including the TanShui River, to execute the river pollution remediation work in priority This plan has obtained good outcome & efficacy, and was completed in 2004 The related outcomes summarized as below:

zRiver pollution remediation

The important rivers underwent the efforts of the Taiwan River Basin & Ocean Management Project have obtained initial efficacy The dissolved oxygen accomplished ratio of water body classification water quality standards was elevated to 84% in 2004 from 52% in 2001 of the PuZi Creek; the Ammonia-Nitrogen accomplished ratio of water body classification water quality standards was elevated to 18.3% in 2004 from 2% in 2001 of the BeiGang Creek; the length ratio of seriously pollutant river was decreased to 31% in

2004 from 92% in 2001 of the NanKan Creek; the problem of water quality unusual color has been resolved, and the iron contents measured by the Chang-Run Bridge Station has decreased to 2.66mg/L in 2004 from 25mg/L in 2001 And the other rivers have been continuously modified, the modification efficacy of each river are shown as Table 6

zOcean pollution remediation

When the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea got effect in 1994, although Taiwan is not the member of United Nations, we were willing to comply with the convention together with other countries on the basis of equal & reciprocity, to enjoy the right and duty of ocean management and ocean protection Therefore, in consideration of the duty of planning, directing, monitoring or executing of the ocean pollution remediation according to the national related regulations to formulate the Marine Pollution Control Act (MPCA) to manage the problem of ocean pollution efficiently

‹Helped the locality to clean up the oil spills of boat stranding, such as the Golden Chemical Tanker, Jin-Long Tanker, the Liberia & Balama Tanker Events, the Jie-Da Tanker, the Asia Cement Tanker No.6, the Rui-Tai Tanker, the Al Farabil Chemical Tanker, the Fossanger Chemical Tanker, the Nostos Tanker, the Tao-Yuan Chinese Petroleum Ocean Pontoon, and the Shun-Tong Taker stranding events, and all the above events could be controlled immediately and had not caused serious ocean pollution events

‹Made the ocean pollution remediation regulations more robust, established the emergency coping system, published 17 regulations related to ocean pollution remediation, and completed the setting of important ocean pollution emergency coping facilities, the training of coping personnel of 195 seed drillmaster and 20 practice

‹Sponsored the locality to conduct ocean environmental survey: Conducted the ocean characteristics survey of the north, middle, south, east districts & the island,

to control the water quality, flow direction of ocean, in order to trace the pollution source and prevent the expansion of the emergent pollution events

‹Executed the work related to the ocean pollution clean-up, and reached the ocean pollution remediation personnel training

Table 6 The modification efficacy of important river water quality

River Name Before remediation (2001) remediation (2002)One year after remediation (2003)Two years after remediation (2004) Three year after TanShui

River System The total length of un-pollutant was

189.81 km (58.67％

of total)

The total length of un-pollutant was 203.2 km (62.80％ of total)

The total length of un-pollutant was 197.48 km (61.06％

of total)

The total length of un-pollutant was 199.86 km (61.8％ of total)

NanKan

Creek The length ratio of serious pollutant basin

was 92% in 2000 (no

data in 2001)

The length ratio of serious pollutant basin was decreased to 77%

in 2002

The length ratio of serious pollutant basin was decreased

to 61.2% in 2003

The length ratio of serious pollutant basin was decreased to 31%

in 2004

KeYa Creek The average dissolved

oxygen was 5.71 mg/L

in 2001

The average dissolved oxygen was 7.35 mg/L in 2002

The average dissolved oxygen was 6.85 mg/L in

2003

The average dissolved oxygen was 3.94 mg/L

in 2004

Wu Creek The

Ammonia-Nitrogen

water body

classification water

quality standards

accomplishment ratio

was 28.9% in 2001

The Ammonia-Nitrogen water body

classification water quality standards accomplishment ratio was elevated to 38.73% in 2001

The Ammonia-Nitrogen water body

classification water quality standards accomplishment ratio was elevated to 43% in 2001

The average biochemical oxygen demand measured by Da-Li Bridge Station was 11.3 mg/L The average biochemical oxygen demand measured by Ji-Chuan Bridge Station was 11.3 mg/L The average

biochemical oxygen demand measured by Ai-Lan Bridge Station was 11.3 mg/L ZhongGang

Creek The total accomplishment ratio

of water body

classification water

quality standards was

26% before 2001

The accomplished

ratio of water body

classification

standards measured by

the Nan-Gang Creek

Bridge Station was

13% in 2001

The total accomplishment ratio

of water body classification water quality standards was elevated to 31% in

2002

The accomplished ratio of water body classification standards measured

by the Nan-Gang Creek Bridge Station was elevated to 38%

in 2002

The total accomplishment ratio of water body classification water quality standards was elevated to 35%

in 2003

The accomplished ratio of water body classification standards measured

by the Nan-Gang Creek Bridge Station was elevated to 40%

in 2003

The ratio on un-pollutant river was 75.75％

BeiGang

Creek The Ammonia-Nitrogen

water body

classification water

quality standards

accomplishment ratio

was 2% in 2001

The Ammonia-Nitrogen water body

classification water quality standards accomplishment ratio was elevated to 11%

in 2002

The Ammonia-Nitrogen water body

classification water quality standards accomplishment ratio was elevated to 18% in 2003

The Ammonia-Nitrogen water body

classification water quality standards accomplishment ratio was elevated to 18.3%

in 2004