The results of tests to determine the cause of mass fish deaths linked to discharges from the Formosa cement plant in Ha Tinh since early April will be announced this afternoon, April 27, at a conference held in Hanoi. The meeting will see the attendance of representatives from the heavily affected central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue.

A source told Dan Tri that the conference will be chaired by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha.

Yesterday, Thua Thien-Hue Province became the first to announce the cause of mass fish deaths in its area. Local authorities blamed a strong toxic substance in water.

Deputy director of Thua Thien-Hue Province's Department of Natural Resources and Environment , Nguyen Huu Quyet, said at the meeting that the water samples taken from local sea showed that the level of Ammonium and Chromium all excess legal levels.

In a move to minimise the firm’s unpopularity, Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Ltd., yesterday held a news conference to apologise for the recent inflammatory remarks by the company’s public relations guru Chou Chun Fan that suggested local people couldn’t expect to maintain their local environment if they wanted to have a modern steel industry.

Although the local media have largely focused on Formosa’s waste water disposal methods and the mass fish deaths, the company continues to insist that their waste water treatment system followed safe standards, even despite the widespread evidence they imported highly toxic cleaning chemicals.