In sixteen years time it could be Kaohsiung's turn in the spotlight, when the realization of the Southern Star Project at Talinpu will see the city's area in creased by one third.
On a sunny southern day in springtime, the sports field at Fenglin Junior High is a dazzling green. Children play on the spacious grass under a clear blue sky, cooled by a sea breeze. Peals of laughter fill the air. It is hard to imagine that ten years ago a sports field was unthinkable, and that the school was in daily peril from the sea, which was washing away school territory as it eroded the Talinpu coastline.
The mayor of the city at that time, Wang Yu- yun instructed the Dept. of Environmental Protection to dump waste earth from construction sites at the coast in an attempt to save existing land. Unexpectedly the dumped earth fast exceeded the rate of erosion, and within eight years a newarea of land 80 hectares in size had opened up. In 1988 the school was able to make free use of the new plot for a second sports field to be shared with neighboring Fenglin Primary School, which used up only a small proportion of the reclaimed land, and was still hundreds of meters from the newly-formed coastline.
The school was saved and the city had found a site for disposal of waste construction earth. But since the original intention was not to create new land, no sea barrier was built, and trash and other materials from the construction waste were constantly washed out to sea, polluting the water and marring the view.
The Southern Star Project that emerged was intended to solve two problems at one stroke: land reclamation and waste disposal. With new techniques it was planned to enlarge the area of the city by one third, including international airport facilities, a free trade zone and Kaohsiung's new harbor, making Talinpu into the "star" of southern Taiwan. In scale it would rival the land reclamation at Osaka Bay.
Talinpu is at Kaohsiung's southern end. With its eroding coastline there is not much to see there; a couple of factories belonging to China Steel and Chinese Petroleum, and some run down fishing villages where people make a living from shrimp raising or inshore fishing. The area owes its current exposure to Mayor Wang's brainwave ten years ago, and also to the success of initial reclamation work, which in 1988 led the city government to decide on the Southern Star project and plan for 200 hectares of new land within five years. It so happened that the project coincided with the Ministry of Communication's hunt for a new deepwater port facility, and a joint outline was drawn up which envisioned a reclaimed land area of 6,700 hectares, and investment of some 400 billion NT dollars. The blueprint for eventual use of the dry land area is still undergoing approval at the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
The raw materials for the project have expanded from construction waste earth to include two types of industrial waste: furnace slag from China Steel and fly ash from Taipower, as well as solidified waste and trench mud.
Locally-born Chen Fang-hsiung, for the last ten years a supervisor at the Talinpu waste disposal site, recalls that at first cowboy building firms erected cheap housing blocks near Fenglin Junior High, hoping to profit on a quick turnover. Coastal erosion was still a big problem though, and the housing would not sell. It was left to rot instead. "But now the situation is completely reversed. Apartments in those buildings are selling for good money, and everyone wants one," says 54-year-old Chen with a laugh. The reclamation project is already bringing a bounty to the area.
The city of Kaohsiung is usually known for its container terminal port (the third largest in the world), international airport, large sports stadium and broad boulevards. It seems to be a city with space to spare, so why all the effort to build land on the sea?
Wu Tun-I, current mayor of Kaohsiung, explains that the city just looks that way because of the wide plain it is built on and the spacious main streets. In fact the city only has an area of 153 sq. km, spread along a narrow north-south strip of the coast, "so if we don't take due precautions and plan for land development in advance, the future will look bleak," comments the mayor.
One reason for the suitability of Talinpu for the project in spite of coastal erosion, is that the sea bed just offshore is fairly even, sloping to a depth of about 30 meters three kilometers out. Another reason is the proximity of the location to Kaohsiung Harbor and Hsiaokang International Airport, making for convenient communications. Additionally, China Steel, Taipower and Chinese Petroleum are well represented at major industrial zones in the surrounding area.
China Steel's refineries produce around two million tones of furnace slag annually, while power plants belonging to Taipower in the south and central region produce about 300,000 tones of fly ash. Both are a cheap and plentiful source of material for the reclamation project, providing an estimated 60% of needs in the short term. Prior to the Southern Star Project, both state-run companies had to have these solid wastes towed out to sea for dumping, or buried in landfills, which cost money and was increasingly problematic from an environmental standpoint. So glad are they to have the worry taken off their hands that they give all the material to the project for free.
Mayor Wu thinks that the project is blessed by good fortune, as well as being in the right place at the right time. The "right time" refers to the fact that the current national six year plan includes provision for railway tunneling in Kaohsiung, the high- speed north-south rail link and the mass rapid transit system in Taipei, major engineering projects "that will create billions of cubic meters of waste earth, that has to be put somewhere."
Nevertheless, timing and location and the myriad of other details that are in the project's favor, will all be to no avail if the money is not there to finance it. The city government has only limited resources and for example will only be able to cover NT$100 million of the estimated NT$700 million needed for the first phase of construction, slated for completion in 1994-96. The rest will have to be begged and borrowed.
Four years ago when the Southern Star Project got underway, Lin Chiang-shan, head of the Dept. of Environmental Protection and responsible for sea reclamation, began the search for funds with China Steel. He recalls: "The company president at the time, Chin Mao-hui was very straightforward. As soon as he heard that the project would use up furnace slag he promptly agreed to donate the NT$100 million that would be saved in transportation and disposal charges." Next, attention was turned to Taipower where another donation of NT$100 million was secured.
In 1988, when Wang Chao-ming, deputy chief of the Council for Economic Planning and Development learned of difficulties that were facing the project he decided to divert Chinese Petroleum's surplus of NT$450 million to the Dept. of Environmental Protection in Kaohsiung. The huge scale sea reclamation was a departure for the department, which only had previous experience in waste disposal projects, so with money in the bank it engaged the services of China Engineering Consultants Inc. to carry out engineering design and environmental impact assessment.
The smoothness of the project has been somewhat impeded by resistance from local people, and compensation claims. Immediate victims of the start of construction were the shoreside shrimp breeders, and inshore fishing craft had to alter their moorings. Allowance was made in the original budget for compensation payments, but claimants remained dissatisfied, and repeated negotiation failed to break the deadlock. Some of the fish breeders were illegal in the first place, but they entered the hunt for compensation too, further complicating matters.
As Shiau Jia-sheng, section chief of Kaohsiung's Dept. of Environmental Protection recalls: "Rumors were flying all about. The building of what was clearly just an office was blown into report that an incinerator was under construction." Locals were particularly heated at the inaugural earth- cutting, and the ceremony had to be abandoned after two minutes amid a hail of stones, police intervention and general confusion.
In response to the repeated protests the environmental assessment consultants carried out two successive opinion polls of residents in the surrounding district. The first found an approval rating for the project of only 40%. "Opposition from the minority engaged in fisheries was understandable," says Lin Chong-min, engineer with the firm of consultants, "but otherwise the project involved no appropriation of private holdings and no removal of people's homes. Also there would be no pollution from the project after its completion, and in the future it could even bring a boom to the area. Yet most respondents neither supported nor were opposed to the plan."
His firm found that dirt from the earth transporter trucks was fouling local roads, and drifting material on the sea was damaging fishing rafts and fishing tackle as well as creating an eyesore, all of which caused a sense of grievance locally. Improvements were made that reduced airborne dust and dirt, and compensation payments made as appropriate. Also the benefits of the project were publicized locally, and the second survey found that support had increased to 70%.
A break with the past was made in the methods used to carry out reclamation. Liaw Shyue-ruey of China Engineering Consultants elaborates: "We first complete the breakwaters and only then commence filling in the enclosed areas, so that dumped earth and garbage cannot drift out to sea. The concrete blocks are made from furnace slag and fly ash, mixed with water and cement in a certain proportion, which make a great saving in cost." The 5.4 km of breakwater nearing completion consists of layers of furnace slag, rock and pre-cast E-shaped blocks, with an outer layer of concrete jacks. A special layer of impermeable material on the inner layers is designed to prevent the spread of particulates from the breakwater into the open sea.
Liaw adds that the specially designed E-shape blocks combine with the concrete jacks to form a surface for the breakwaters that has ample hollows and crevices, attracting marine organisms large and small, which explains how the incomplete breakwaters are already a magnet for fishermen.
In addition to plenty of people fishing, there are divers working at the site, positioning the blocks underwater. One describes the great precision involved in the operation, saying that "positioning has to start all over if the margin between two blocks exceeds 5 cm." Each block takes about half an hour to fit into place.
No doubts have been cast on the quality of engineering in the project, but concern has been raised over possible long term harm to the marine ecology caused by heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, arsenic and zinc that are released from furnace slag and fly ash dissolved in water. When work on the barriers started three years ago, Chang Kun-hsiung, head of the biology research institute at National Sun Yat-sen University; went to the site in person to investigate the question. Himself an expert in marine ecology, Chang says: "The sea bed there is muddy, which is not as fertile a ground for marine organisms as coral reef, so the construction of reclaimed land does not have such a great effect on sea life." Additionally, the results of experiments by the Dept. of Environmental Protection and China Engineering Consultants Inc. show that current heavy metal levels in the water are within the prescribed limits, and cannot harm the marine ecology.
Chang points out however that just offshore by his university they once discovered a case of fish gills becoming blocked by coal ash, causing suffocation and death on a large scale. "It will be necessary to make fixed checks on water quality near the breakwaters, even with the impermeable material built into them, in case of ruptures or other changes," he emphasizes.
An expert in the field makes a comparison with the reclamation project that is being carried out in the sea at Osaka, where the sea is being filled in a similar manner, but where different materials are being used to fill different zones, because final plans for use of the land have already been drawn up. At Talinpu the material used is the same all over, so while there will be no problem erecting regular factory buildings, high-rise structures will need test boring to ascertain the strength of the ground for foundations.
In spite of some questions concerning various particulars, the Southern Star Project is still regarded as a model of environmental engineering. Says Chang Kun-hsiung: "In the final analysis this is a rare construction project for Taiwan, in which environmental problems have been taken into account at the same time as providing an appropriate form of recycling for a polluting waste product."
Outside the entrance to the offices of the Southern Star project is a high stand, with the project logo atop it and a sentence that reads: "Making a miracle out of decay, creating a welcoming new world." It is a line which reflects the stubborn determination of workers on this massive scheme, just as it illustrates the "beautiful new world" that is projected for the site reclaimed from the sea.
[Picture Caption]
The Dept. of Environmental Protection in Kaohsiung began using waste earth from construction sites in sea reclamation. The project was unexpectedly successful, and after ten years resulted in 80 hectares of new land. (right: a bird's eye view of the site) (photo courtesy of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung)
The project has had a wide influence. High- ranking figures often visit for inspection tours. (photo by Vincent Chang)
(Above) Huge concrete jacks must be lowered carefully into the water.
(Below) Things are growing on the new land already. (photo courtesy of t he Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung)
Sea reclamation was traditionally done without building sea barriers, simply piling up and leveling out earth and rubble. (photo courtesy of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung)
Mayor Wu, and Chen Lung-chi of the EPA plant the first tree on the new land. (photo by Vincent Chang)
Fishermen are in evidence before work on the breakwaters is even finished.
Quality engineering is essential in construction of the breakwaters. Divers and engineers make careful measurements of the margins involved.
Engineering vessels dumping rocks into the sea.
The expanse of new land represents hope and potential for Kaohsiung. (photo courtesy of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung)
The project has had a wide influence. High- ranking figures often visit for inspection tours. （photo by Vincent Chang）
（Above） Huge concrete jacks must be lowered carefully into the water.
（Below） Things are growing on the new land already. （photo courtesy of t he Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung）
Sea reclamation was traditionally done without building sea barriers, simply piling up and leveling out earth and rubble. （photo courtesy of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung）
Mayor Wu, and Chen Lung-chi of the EPA plant the first tree on the new land. （photo by Vincent Chang）
Fishermen are in evidence before work on the breakwaters is even finished.
Quality engineering is essential in construction of the breakwaters. Divers and engineers make careful measurements of the margins involved.
Engineering vessels dumping rocks into the sea.
The expanse of new land represents hope and potential for Kaohsiung. （photo courtesy of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Kaohsiung）
