Water Pollution Prevention and Control
Water is an essential aspect of life. It contributes to many important activities in human society, such as irrigation of agricultural field, hydro-electricity generation, industrial use and recreational use. Due to ever increasing economic growth, large amounts of waste water are produced as by-product of human industrial activities. These waste water flows into river, lake, marine and other water bodies. This pollution source then manifests into different pollution problems that cause severe impacts on their normal applications.
Water pollution by definition are changes in water quality induced by chemical matters, biological matters or energy which alters the state of water such that it becomes hazardous to human, animal, plants and the eco-system. Some of the main sources of water pollution are household wastewater, industrial wastewater, livestock wastewater, farming recycling water, and recreational wastewater.
- Rivers and Creeks
Water resource is abundant within this county, surface water can be found all around the regions. Major rivers within the county includes Tetzukou River、Lanyang River、Luodong River、Yilan River、Dongshan River and Shincheng River; there are also major lakes such as Longtan Lake、Ta Lake、Shuanglienbei 、Meihua Lake、Tsuifeng Lake…etc.
- Industrial and Other Wastewater
According to the “Water pollution source control system database”, there are currently 402 enterprises being registered as water pollution sources within the Yilan county. From the distribution analysis of watershed, Shincheng River alone there are 183 registered enterprises which accounts to 45.5%, which makes this area the most highly concentrated area. The second most highly concentrated area is the Tetzukou River watershed totally 56 enterprises for 13.9%. Lanyang River and Dongshan River are third and fourth watershed respectively with 49 enterprises accounting for 12.2% and 47 enterprises accounting for 11.7% of total pollution sources. These four river watersheds totals to 335 registered enterprises making up 83.3% of the registered pollution source enterprises (see Table 2.2-1, Figure 2.2-1 and Figure 2.2-2 for more detail). Of which enterprises in Shincheng River system are mostly metal process factories, food processing factories and chemical factories, Tetzukou River mostly involves livestock enterprises, in Dongshan River are mostly in food processing industry, livestock and community underground sewer systems.
- Pig Farming and Livestock Wastewater
From the current statistics of water pollution control shows that up to May 2005 there are total 433 registered water pollution sources under this jurisdiction, which include 31 sewage systems and 402 registered enterprises. Within the registered enterprises, 91 livestock farms is the largest category in Yilan county and the biggest pollution sources of river water pollution. The livestock farms are thus the most actively monitored enterprises by this bureau.
- Community and Urban Sewage
Because of the lacking of sanitary sewer system, Community and urban wastewater are passed directly into rivers which is a major cause of water pollution for each river. Yilan county government has invested many human and monetary resources into the construction of sewage systems to reduce water pollution in the river systems.
