| Title | Lessons from the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex of Mailiao, Taiwan: Environmental disputes and health risks |
| Publication Type | Book Chapter |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Authors | Wang, Hurng-Jyuhn |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-00-308174-6 |
| Abstract | Taiwan experienced economic stagnation when low economic growth was accompanied by mass capital investments moving to mainland China and Southeast Asia in the late 1980s. One of the largest investments for stimulating economic momentum, and one that was strongly endorsed by the central government at the time, was the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex Project. This project was planned to integrate the up-, mid-, and downstream production processes of the petrol and petrochemical industry. The Formosa Petrochemical Cooperation received permission to set up the complex in 1986. However, the site search was not simultaneously supported by the local governments of Yi-Lan and Tao-Yuan, and eventually the complex was situated in Mailiao, Yunlin county, in 1991. Over the course of its twenty-year construction expansion, the complex has spread to cover 2,603 hectares of reclaimed land and has become one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world. However, the air pollution and wider ecological degradation as well as issues surrounding industrial safety and the associated public health risks have become critical problems and have resulted in contentious debates regarding the management of the petrochemical complex. This chapter examines the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex Project transitions and its environmental pollution and health effects on local residents. Lessons gleaned from a retrospective analysis of the complex’s impact on Taiwanese society, such as high-tech scientific risk decision-making, may actually embody an imperfect decision-making process from the very first stage, as was shown in the FPC case. Furthermore, the political imbalance between a huge petrochemical industrial complex and a little local government in terms of human resources and regulatory capacities is the issue that needs to be settled. |
| Short Title | Lessons from the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex of Mailiao, Taiwan |
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