Carbon black dust and a burnt odor drifted from a manufacturer into a neighborhood in Kaohsiung's Linyuan District on the afternoon of the 23rd. Environmental officials found a production line running while its desulfurization unit was shut down and moved to penalize the company under air pollution law.
Black carbon black powder settled over Beishan Village (北汕里) in Linyuan District, southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung, on the afternoon of the 23rd. According to the United Daily News (聯合報), residents said black ash coated their faces, hands and feet and stained furniture and floors inside their homes. The air carried a heavy smell like burnt caramel.
광고 문의 · 300×250The source was identified as Linyuan Advanced Co. (林園先進), a carbon black producer. Kaohsiung was under typhoon-driven rain at the time. Residents said the smell was foul and that wiping their skin left black marks, adding that they were afraid to open their windows for fear the unidentified pollutant could harm their health.
Line kept running while the scrubber was off
The Kaohsiung City Environmental Protection Bureau sent inspectors after receiving reports. The United Daily News reported that they confirmed a distinct burnt odor downwind of the plant. Carbon black line M01 was still operating, while the wet flue-gas desulfurization tower A104 was shut down for gasket reinforcement work.
The bureau concluded that continuing production with pollution-control equipment offline let odorous pollutants escape, and said it would penalize the company under Article 32 of the Air Pollution Control Act. The statutory fine is NT$100,000 to NT$5 million; the actual amount had not been confirmed at the time of reporting.
Councilor: residents' health must not be the price of production
Local city councilor Chiu Yu-hsuan (邱于軒) visited the scene and asked the bureau to dispatch inspectors. She urged the company to halt operations and find the cause, saying residents' health should not be the cost of running the plant.
The company said carbon black lines M01 through M03 had all been shut down. When the lines will restart, any compensation plan for residents and the results of an analysis of the dust have not been confirmed.
Linyuan is an industrial zone dense with petrochemical plants, where complaints about factory smoke and odors have recurred. How operations were managed during equipment maintenance is expected to be the central question in this case.