Special Industrial Parks Air Quality Monitoring and
Control Information Website

Control purpose for special industrial parks

In Taiwan, air quality related regulations were adopted for the management of air quality in special industrial parks. Based on the authorization of Article 15 of Air Pollution Control Act, the Buffer Zones and Air Quality Monitoring Facility Standards for the Special Industrial Parks (hereinafter referred to as “the Standards”) was promulgated by the Taiwan EPA to reduce industrial environmental impact and estimate air quality change in surrounding area of special industrial parks. Through the analysis of the background of air quality data collected by the facility for air quality monitoring, it can help stakeholders and policymakers in understanding the influence of special industrial parks on air quality in surrounding area, and thus to identify effective emission control strategies.

Definition of special industrial parks

Special industrial parks means industrial parks of which the base area of accommodated special industries is a quarter or more of the total area. The aforementioned special industries include metals smelting industry, oil refining industry, basic petrochemical industry, pulp industry, cement manufacturing industry, pesticide technical grade manufacturing industry, coking industry, electricity generating enterprise using coal, oil, and gas as fuel, resin, plastic, and rubber manufacturing industry, petrochemical intermediates industry, acid and alkali industry, semiconductor manufacturing industry, optoelectronic materials and components manufacturing industry, and other industry types designated by the central competent authority.

History

Air quality related regulations for special industrial parks is shown in Figure 1.

Sources of law

• Article 15 of Air Pollution Control Act:Developers of special industrial parks shall plan and install buffer zones within the boundaries of the parks and install air quality monitoring facilities in appropriate areas.The central competent authority shall determine the categories, buffer zones, records and reports of monitored air quality, monitoring facility establishment standards and record reporting standards for the special industrial parks in the preceding paragraph.The central competent authority shall periodically announce the status of reporting as mentioned in the preceding paragraph and its original data.
• Article 10 of Air Pollution Control Act Enforcement Rules:Development referred to in Article 15, paragraph 1 of Air Pollution Control Act means the establishment, expansion or modification of special industrial parks.The expansion or modification of ordinary industrial parks to accommodate special industries, in which the affected area is one-fourth or more of the total industrial park area, shall be considered as development of special industrial parks.

Auxiliary rules

• Buffer Zones and Air Quality Monitoring Facility Standards for the Special Industrial Parks Original articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on January 21, 1994.Revisions to articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on September 15, 1999.Revisions to articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on September 20, 2012.Revisions to articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on March 5, 2014.
• Quality Assurance Procedures of Air Quality Monitoring Facility for the Special Industrial Parks Original articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on March 24, 2014.
• Directions for Output Signal of Air Quality Monitoring Facility for the Special Industrial Parks and Telecommunications Transmission Equipment Original articles promulgated by the Taiwan EPA on March 21, 2014.

Penal provisions

• Article 58 of Air Pollution Control Act: Developers of special industrial parks in any of the following circumstances shall be fined NT$500,000 to NT$20 million and notified to make improvements within a limited time period; those that have still failed to complete improvements by the deadline shall be penalized consecutively per violation.Violation of Article 15 (1) by failure to install buffer zones or install air quality monitoring facilities in appropriate areas; or Violation of the standards determined pursuant to Article 15 (2) for installation of buffer zones, establishment of monitoring facilities, records, reports and binding matters.
• Article 86 of Air Pollution Control Act:For those who benefit from violation of any obligation under this Act, fines shall be increased to the extent appropriate within the scope of the benefit gained.

Stipulation

For those who involved in establishment, expansion or modification of special industrial parks.

• Establishment: Means newly established industrial parks to accommodate special industries, in which the affected area is one-fourth or more of the total industrial park area.
• Expansion: Means the affected area of parks accommodating special industries increasing with an increase of the base area of ordinary and special industrial parks, and the affected area is one-fourth or more of the total industrial park area.
• Modification: Means the affected area of parks accommodating special industries increasing while the base area of ordinary and special industrial parks remains the same.

Rules for application and examination：

Before the development, the developer of special industrial park shall submit the basic information of park, and the plans for installing buffer zones and air quality monitoring facility. The aforementioned plans shall record the matters listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Matters shall be recorded in the plans for installing buffer zones and air quality monitoring facility for the special industrial parks.

Rules for installing buffer zones：

The buffer zones shall be installed surrounding the special industrial parks. The area or width of the buffer zones of newly established special industrial parks shall meet the requirement of the Standards. For those who involved in expansion or modification of special industrial parks, the installation of buffer zones shall abide to the review of environmental impact statements, environmental impact assessment reports, and other environmental impact assessment documents for those development activities that environmental impact assessment was made. For those development activities that environmental impact assessment was not made, the installation of buffer zones shall follow the Standards and receive the authorization of special municipality, county or city competent authority.

Rules for air quality monitoring：

Developers of special industrial parks shall follow the Standards to execute the matters of air quality monitoring.

• Monitoring station installation: Following the site selection principle of the Standards, four air quality monitoring stations shall be installed at least. If metals smelting industry, oil refining industry, basic petrochemical industry, pulp industry, cement manufacturing industry, coking industry, electricity generating enterprise using coal, oil, and gas as fuel are accommodated in the parks, additional one station shall be installed in the township (city or district) where the parks are located, and the township (city or district) surrounding the boundary of parks, respectively.
• Monitoring items: Typical air pollutants (PM_2.5、PM₁₀、SO₂、NOx、NO、NO₂、CO、O₃、and hydrocarbons ) 、meteorological factors (wind direction, wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation). Specific air pollutants listed in Tables 3 are required to be monitored for special industries in the special industrial parks.
• Monitoring frequency: The monitoring frequency of dioxins shall be once every year, and once every month in the first two to three years after the modification of special industrial parks. In addition, the monitoring frequency of automatic monitoring and manual monitoring shall be continuous monitoring and once every six days, respectively.
• Telecommunications transmission and reporting: Following the Directions for Output Signal of Air Quality Monitoring Facility for the Special Industrial Parks and Telecommunications Transmission Equipment, the monitoring data handling system shall be internet connected the competent authority, and the record files of previous one hour shall be transmitted hourly for the items monitored by the automatic monitoring facility. For the items determined by manual monitoring, the data of previous quarter shall be reported to the competent authority by the end of February, May, August, and November each year.
• Quality assurance and control: The quality assurance and control of air quality monitoring shall follow the Quality Assurance Procedures of Air Quality Monitoring Facility for the Special Industrial Parks. The calibration recordings of previous one day shall be transmitted to the competent authority every day. The results of monitoring and analysis shall be preserved for five years for the checking by the competent authority.

Table 3 Specific air pollutants required to be monitored for special industries in the special industrial parks.

1. Details can be can be accessed here.

2. Heavy metals (As, Be, Cd, Mn, Ni, and Pb compounds) associated with PM₁₀ and TSP hexavalent chromium.

3. HF, HCl, HNO₃, H₃PO₄ and H₂SO₄.

4. H₂S, CH₃SH, CS₂, (CH₃)₂S, and (CH₃)₂S₂.