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22.The Study of Engineering Technology on Intake of Deep Ocean Water○Jin-Yuan Liu(President of National Taitung University; President of Taiwan Deep Ocean Water Association)

1. Introduction
including the choice of the pipe materials, special
maritime design, as well as project manage- ment,
etc. These are questions worth of pondering andserious consideration.
3. Plausible Fixing Approach on DOW Pipe
Though the DOW pipes were fail to intake thewater, the image of ROV survey was shown that thepipe remains operable in the upper part till 300
meters. Since sea water at this depth is still valuable
in use, it is therefore worth of considering if one may
develop plausible approach to fix the pipe.
As an example, the Dragon Prince Hydro Survey
Enterprise Cooperation in Kaohsiung, Taiwan has
designed an ROV with mechanical arms which arecapable of drilling holes on the water pipe on site to
make the water running. Although this is not along-term solution, it provides a quick and inexpensive way to an urgent solution.
4. Alternatives for DOW Intake
To guarantee a stable water supply, one has toconsider the alternatives for water intake to copewith the emergent situation. To support industrialdevelopment, one has to have a stable water supply.
However, for research purpose, we may use alternatives in case of necessary. For example, the Ministryof Economic Affairs has considered to design afloating intake facility to supply DOW for research
purpose in EDOWIC.
5. Reconstruction, Relocation of DOW Pipe
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is now underassessment on whether to reconstruct the DOW pipeat the original site (with new routes), or to relocate tosome other places. But in any case, we should
continue the development as soon as possible so thatthe delay may be reduced to minimum. If relocationis the choice, one should consider the land base thatis capable of industrial development.
6. Concluding Remarks
In summary, the DOW industry has been deterred by the failure of water intake problem, causing agreat damage on the local economic development.
Both the government and civilian sectors should
work together to find the solution. We believe that
DOW industry offers a great opportunity in local
prosperity in the eastern part of Taiwan, and allefforts should be invested to make it true.

The development of deep ocean water (DOW)
industry in Taiwan has been about ten years.
Currently in civilian sector there are three companies
in Hwalian County. In particular, The Taiwan DeepOcean Water Company belonging to The Taiwan
Fertilizer Company is one of the more successful. In
government aspect, The Ministry of Economic
Affairs and The Agricultural Commissioner haverespectively set up facilities in the southern and thenorthern bank of Chiben River in Taitung County,
referring to as Eastern Deep Ocean Water Innovation
R&D Center (EDOWIC) and The Source Bank ofMarine Life. However, these two facilities wereencountered water intaking failure problem, resulting
in a serious delay on DOW industry.
In order to assist on resolving the problem, theauthor has held meetings or conferences each year
since 2012, gathering experts from government,
university, and companies, foreign or domestic, todiscuss the issues. However, the progress on fixing
the intake of DOW pipe has been slow, and theproblem has remained till now. The purpose of thisstudy is to look for the possible solutions oralternatives for the DOW supply for the two facilities
established in Taitung County area.
2. The Cause of Failure of the DOW Pipe
About the cause of the failure of the DOW intake
pipes, through in-situ surveys using various underwater instrument, incorporated with the data analysis
on seabed properties, earthquake, and climate
information, the results have indicated that the failureof the DOW pipe was due to the instability of theseabed, causing landslide or collapse of the seabedtriggered by typhoon or earthquake, and in turnrendering coverage of the water pipe or intake mouthby the seabed sediments. It is therefore considered as
an inevitable failure due to the natural disasters.
This argument of DOW pipe failure may not be
accepted without doubt. Even if the cause is due tonatural disasters, one still has to question if thefailure factors were completely unsolvable byengineering technology. For example, it is questionable on whether the selection of the pipe route has
been based on the in-depth analysis of the dataobtained from the seabed survey. Furthermore, it wasunderstood beforehand that the pipes were lied on theseabed nearby the Chiben River mouth, the questionis whether this factor was considered to be copedwith and then in response to the design factors,(34)