Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) Initiatives Toward Green Growth: Lessons from Korean Experience - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 354

From the beginning, however, the project has not been carried out following
EIP principles. The three industrial parks are as far as 80 km away from each
other. This fact is contrary to the EIP principle of short commuting distance
between plants (Lowi 2001 ; Deutz and Gibbs 2004 ). Also, the principle of an EIP
is to basically build a resource-symbiotic network within an industrial park.
Therefore, the network between the industrial parks has some problems in that it
has weak economic feasibility and can cause secondary pollution in the transport
process of wastes and by-products. The Center's initial plan was to promote the
project in Chilseo Industrial Park alone. Then, Macheon and Sangpyung asked to
be involved in the project for several reasons. The MCIE accepted their requests
and the project in Gyeongnam Province developed this unusual form as a result. It
is clear that the unreasonable structure continues to threaten the rationality and
justification for the existence of the project (Kim 2007 ).
Macheon Industrial Park (MIP) is a local industrial complex officially approved
by the MCIE in 1993. The main type of business is small foundries. These small
businesses moved to the outskirts of Jinhae, Gyeongnam, from the border of Busan
City in the late 1980s due to expansion of the residential district and civil com-
plaints. The area of MIP belongs to the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone
(BJFEZ), and the BJFEZ authority takes charge of the area's environmental and
industrial affairs.
MIP has generated civil complaints concerning the stench created by the
combustion process of molds made of sand. Ammonia and phenol gases are
the main source of the stench, produced when melted iron combusts sand molds.
The stench might be partially treated through pollution prevention facilities, but
complete treatment is impossible because a great deal of the work is carried out in
the open air. The stench and air pollution are serious in the summer season when
the south-southwestern wind tends to concentrate pollutants in the basin area.
Residents complained of administrative irresponsibility in placing the residential
area beside the industrial complex, which generates a large quantity of pollutants
and demanded strict supervision and even the removal of MIP.
In addition to the unfavorable quality of life of the residents, the issue was also
related to fiscal matters. Due to the stench problem, the housing development
project promoted near MIP did not pass the environmental impact assessment
twice, in 2002 and 2005. If the quality of a site does not sufficiently meet the
standards of the environmental impact assessment, the inevitable use of the land
will be as a factory site. The residents are discontented with this notion because
this affects the property value of the residents' houses. The BJFEZ has feared that
the MIP problem could ruin the master plan of the entire free economic zone and
has come up with two alternatives to resolve the problem.
The first alternative is to convert MIP into an EIP. The managerial board of
MIP felt that the EIP approach promoted by MCIE could settle its stench problem.
The chief manager strongly requested the BJFEZ and MCIE to involve the
industrial park in the project. The BJFEZ sympathized with the view of MIP and
requested the involvement of MIP in the pilot project to MCIE. However, this
happened because of their conceptual misunderstanding of EIPs (Kim 2007 ).