By collecting real-time pollution data, an environmental group discovered Taiwan's largest petrochemical plant exceeded the emissions quota for pollution over 25,000 times. The plant didn't pay a cent for it.

Original reporting by Chih-hsin Liu

Translation and additional reporting by Aaron Wytze

When we see smoke rising from a factory, what kind of reaction are we supposed to have? How often do we think to ourselves, “I’m sure the government has it under control.”

Last July, a smoke stack at Taiwan’s largest petrochemical plant began to emit large amounts of black smoke.

Sensing something unusual, a driver passing by the plant called in to make an anonymous report about the smoke. Why they did so, could have been for a number of reasons. It could be that the rate of liver and lung cancer among nearby residents has skyrocketed since the plant went up. It could be that that the communities surrounding the plant have Taiwan’s highest recorded levels of PM2.5. Or they may have noticed the putrid smell. Or they may have heard about the dramatic fall of fish caught in the vicinity of the plant.

But the response from Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), was not particularly reassuring: “today’s output has not exceeded emissions standards.”

“We just thought it was really strange. The changes in the environment have been so evident,” said Tseng Hung-wen, a researcher for the Green Citizen’s Action Alliance (GCAA), an environmental advocacy group in Taiwan.

“So, why wasn’t the company fined?”

In response to the government’s lukewarm response to their concern, the GCAA decided to measure real-time data from the petrochemical plant for nearly a year.

The group wasn’t prepared for what they found in the data: over 25,000 instances of the plant exceeding gaseous pollutant and particulate pollutant emissions standards, with more than 250 instances where the government was supposed to levy fines for exceeding emissions standards.

But not a single fine was levied against the company. And when they compared their data findings to the EPA’s, they were shocked to find all instances of the plant exceeding emissions standards had disappeared.

Now the GCAA is demanding the Taiwan government open up more of its pollution-related data. In the meantime, the group is creating their own database, in a push to give open environmental data to the public.