Suncheon-si, No Issues in Site Selection for Public Resource Facilities

Audit Results of Jeonnam Province Resident Audit Request Confirm No Procedural Issues

Jeollanam-do announced on the 21st that the results of the resident audit request conducted under the 「Local Autonomy Act」 for the ‘New Household Waste Treatment Facility in Suncheon City’ found no issues with major matters such as the preparation of the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment report and the site feasibility study.

This audit was conducted in response to a resident audit request, which was filed regarding 14 various suspicions related to site selection raised by the Anti-Incineration Plant Civic Coalition (‘hereinafter’ the Anti-Incineration Plant Civic Coalition) opposing the waste incineration plant next to the National Garden.

[Photo by Suncheon City]

The Anti-Incineration Plant Civic Coalition’s claims of defects in the content and procedures of the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment were judged to have no illegal issues.

Specifically, ▲ The Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment report prepared and submitted before the approval of the waste treatment facility installation plan was lawful ▲ The Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment conducted two measurements of air quality and odor, which was lawful (the resident audit request claimed only one measurement) ▲ The omission of aboveground and underground review items in the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment is not illegal ▲ Selecting 814-25 Yeonhyang-dong among five candidate sites as the optimal candidate site and conducting the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment was lawful ▲ There were no violations of the Ministry of Environment’s ‘Waste Treatment Facility National Subsidy Work Processing Guidelines’ ▲ There were no illegalities regarding the announcement procedures for site selection plans, etc. ? seven items were either lawful or had no illegal issues.

Additionally, ▲ Matters related to the selection of the optimal candidate site for the incineration plant ▲ Installation of benefit facilities in the waste treatment facility area without consultation with the resident council composed of local residents ? five items were excluded or deferred from the resident audit request as they involve matters subject to investigation or trial.

The issue of non-disclosure of the site selection committee members and meeting minutes is unrelated to the site feasibility study, but since the site decision notice has been completed, Suncheon City plans to review the opinions of the site selection committee members and related regulations to respond accordingly.

Meanwhile, regarding the comparative analysis of each candidate site, differences in some value judgments such as landscape and facility exposure evaluation and typographical errors in the data are matters decided by the site selection committee. However, since the Anti-Incineration Plant Civic Coalition plans to file an administrative lawsuit, legal judgment is expected to be necessary.

A similar case related to the installation of waste treatment facilities includes the lawsuit to confirm the invalidity of the site notice for the waste treatment facility in Seosan City (Daejeon District Court ruling 2019GuHap105367), where it was ruled that ‘the site feasibility study results are only considered by the site selection committee in site selection and are not binding, so the notice in this case cannot be considered invalid,’ and the plaintiff’s claim was dismissed, with the Supreme Court ultimately rejecting it.

Suncheon City plans to thoroughly prepare by referring to similar cases such as Seosan City if the Anti-Incineration Plant Civic Coalition files an administrative lawsuit and to steadily promote the next-generation public resource recycling project.

The head of the Cleaning Resources Division of Suncheon City stated, “To prevent the upcoming waste crisis and respond to the 2030 ban on direct landfill of household waste, we earnestly ask for the active cooperation of citizens to ensure the steady progress of the new household waste treatment facility currently being promoted and to prevent any cases of falsification or misuse of the audit results.”