王吉娜實習日誌20: 實習計畫：會見謝和霖

實習計畫：會見謝和霖

    在決定以南投垃圾焚化廠提案作為我的實習計畫後，我聽了Jennifer的建議，去拜訪了「台灣環境資訊協會」（Taiwan Watch，一個環保非政府組織）的成員謝和霖。他擁有化學工程背景，自2024年起就一直關注這項議題。

    我們在他位於台北的家中會面，他向我介紹了當地的地質。當地居民極力維護的那片茶園位於名間鄉；該鄉地理位置特殊，東面緊鄰高山，西面則是一處高原。

    這座擬建焚化廠存在的問題在於，它不僅坐落於斷層帶上，還位於濁水溪（Zhoushi River）的上游；這條河流流向台灣西海岸，而那裡分佈著大量農田。一旦發生地震，焚化廠內的污染物極有可能外洩並擴散至週邊區域，甚至順流而下，污染下游的其他城鎮以及食物和水源。此外，名間鄉的風速極低（僅每秒2公里），這意味著焚化廠產生的空氣污染物很可能會滯留在名間鄉附近，難以擴散。

Internship Project: Meeting Xie Helin

    After deciding to do my internship project on the waste incinerator proposal in Nantou, I followed Jennifer’s recommendation to meet Xie Helin, an activist in Taiwan Watch (an environmental NGO) who has a background in chemical engineering, and he had been following this issue since 2024. 

    We met him in his home in Taipei, and he began to tell me about the geology of the area. The tea farm that the locals are protesting for is located in Mingjian Township, which is situated on the bottom of the high mountains to its east, and a plateau to its west. 

    The problem with the incinerator is that it is located on a fault line, as well as upstream the Zhoushi River that feeds out into the west coast of Taiwan where a lot of farmland is located. On the occasion that an earthquake occurs, it is highly possible that the pollutants in the incinerator will spill into the area, and leak downriver into other towns and food/water sources. The wind speed in Mingjian Township is also very low (2 kilometers per second), so the air pollution produced by the incinerator would most likely stay near Mingjian Township and not disperse.