A Taiwan organization dedicated to fighting soil and groundwater contamination has signed a memorandum of understanding with its U.K. counterpart, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration said June 24.
The MOU—signed between the Taiwan Association of Soil and Groundwater Environmental Protection and the U.K.’s Contaminated Land Applications in Real Environments—calls for the two sides to establish a cooperative mechanism and to exchange information on soil and groundwater pollution control, according to the EPA.
The MOU also requires that the two sides conduct mutual inspections and hold joint academic conferences, the EPA added.
There are an estimated 10,000 contaminated sites in the U.K., according to the EPA, whose officials visited England in November 2008 to better understand the efforts made by the U.K. on soil and groundwater pollution remediation.
Afterwards, the EPA circulated the information it had gathered in Taiwan, in hopes of establishing closer ties between both sides.
The MOU between TASGEP and CLAIRE is the result of efforts by the EPA and the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan, the EPA added.
According to the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund Committee under the EPA, over 2,000 contaminated sites have been identified on the island, on which the institution spends approximately NT$700 million (US$21.8 million) annually on soil and groundwater pollution investigation and remediation, risk assessment and technical development, the EPA said. (HZW)