Samcheok pushes back hard against Taebaek's smart livestock complex
Taebaek can't celebrate its government funding win amid neighbor's fury
Residents ask: 'We voted PPP and this is what we get?'
Central party quietly uncomfortable as conservative belt frays
A plan to build a smart livestock complex in Taebaek, Gangwon Province has set two neighboring cities on a collision course. Taebaek, situated in the highlands of the Baekdudaegan mountain range, insists that smart farming technology will eliminate any environmental harm. Samcheok, lying downstream at lower elevation, fears contamination from animal waste and other pollutants — and has dug in hard against the project.
Civic groups in Samcheok have formed a pan-citizen response committee and traveled to the National Assembly to stage protests, even though the legislature has no direct role in the matter. Taebaek, meanwhile, cannot celebrate what should be welcome news — hundreds of billions of won in government funding — because it has been unable to respond openly to the insults Samcheok has been hurling, and instead vents its frustration about the other side's conduct only in private.
What makes the standoff particularly striking is that Samcheok Mayor Park Sang-su and Taebaek Mayor Lee Sang-ho both belong to the People Power Party. In one sense the conflict is simply sad; in another, it looks plainly foolish. The two cities' mayors, provincial assembly members and city council members are overwhelmingly from the same party — and yet their collective capacity for negotiation appears to be near zero.
The central government's role here is limited. Gangwon Province sought national funding, presented a credible, evidence-based methodology showing the project could proceed without adverse effects, and the government reviewed the application and agreed to provide hundreds of billions of won in support. That process is done.
What is needed now is negotiation among the mayors and lawmakers who lead these small cities — but rational, reasonable dialogue is nowhere to be found in either Samcheok or Taebaek.
Provincial assembly members from Samcheok have poured fuel on the conflict, adopting the posture of aggrieved victims even before any harm has been confirmed.
In October, provincial lawmaker Jeong Yeon-cheol said the company set to operate the complex was a firm relocating from Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, where odor complaints had been filed continuously for 37 years.
On Tuesday, provincial lawmaker Jo Seong-un said the potential effects of odors, dust and livestock waste on the living environment and safety of nearby residents "should have been thoroughly verified from the earliest stages of the project," and called on Gangwon Province to launch a probe into how the project had been pushed forward.
Taebaek, by contrast, has stayed largely silent in public — while privately, criticism of Samcheok's conduct has been loud.
Smart farming was developed precisely to address the kind of pollution Samcheok fears, but telling the other side "it's smart technology, so don't worry" has proven difficult, and preparations for the complex are already complete.
Other cities and provinces are watching closely, as the complex could become a landmark for eco-friendly agriculture and livestock farming free of pollutant discharge.
If the leaders of both cities keep stoking the fight rather than seeking a solution, they will lose the support of their own residents.
Gangwon Province has become a political bellwether — its voters have drifted from their traditionally center-right leanings toward a more neutral stance. Residents of Gangwon Province, Samcheok and Taebaek who watch their leaders behave with no middle ground may well conclude: "We voted PPP, and this is the best they can do against each other?"
Before 1980, Samcheok and Taebaek were part of the same administrative unit, and the leaders now running both cities are personally intertwined in ways that make their failure to find a wise solution all the more baffling to local residents.
The fallout may even reach the PPP's central leadership. The conservative belt within Gangwon Province has already eroded considerably, and an intraparty brawl in Samcheok and Taebaek — two areas the party had considered relatively solid ground — is the last thing the central party needs.
abc@heraldcorp.com
