(Taipei Times) -- Plans by the Formosa PlasticsGroup to make alterations to the phase-four expansion at its naphtha cracker in Yunlin's Mailiao Township did not pass the Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) review. The company was asked to rethink its plan and file supplementary information for further review.
Formosa Group had proposed the additional construction of polycrystalline silicon solar application plants (initially part of its phase-five expansion) and hydrogenated styrenic block copolymer plants, which together would have increased production capacity by 6.01 percent more than the original phase-four expansion project.
In April, the EIA committee considered the new proposals and concluded that they involved too many alterations. Then it asked Formosa Group to rethink its plans and provided supplementary documents for further review. Yesterday the group said the increase in production capacity was below 10 percent (alterations that exceed 10 percent are required to re-apply for an EIA review) and it had the capacity to deal with increased waste.
The planned alteration to the project would call for an additional 4 KT of water, which the group said would also be self-supplied.