Soil Contamination Left Unprotected in Maedan-dong and Other Areas

Most of the 76 soil contamination sites in Gyeonggi Province, including the Maedan-dong area of Suwon, have been left unattended, with heavy metal contamination exposed.

In particular, nine areas including Suwon's Maedan-dong, Seongnam's Sangdaewon 1-dong, Anyang's Seoksu-dong, and Siheung's Misan-dong and Maehwa-dong have been identified as requiring improvement and remediation, as they exceed soil contamination warning standards with heavy metals such as arsenic and zinc—known to be hazardous to pregnant women—as well as petroleum contamination components.

On the 13th, Han Nara Party National Assembly member Shim Jae-chul (representing Anyang Dong-gu), a member of the Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee, analyzed data from the Gyeonggi Province submission titled "Soil Contamination Inspection Results" and urged the province to establish countermeasures against soil contamination.

Gunpo City's Dangjung-dong and Siheung City's Misan-dong were found to have soil contamination at critical levels, with heavy metal and petroleum contamination components exceeding the standard by 13 times and zinc concentration exceeding the standard by 10 times.

However, the province has yet to take any measures for seven of the eight sites, aside from the two already addressed.

Meanwhile, Rep. Shim Jae-chul stated, "Active administrative measures are necessary to promptly advance remediation work in areas where soil contamination exceeds standards to prevent secondary pollution such as groundwater contamination."