In its March 2005 report on the Suhua Highway project, the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau (TANEEB) calls the planned construction 'safe' and "sustainable". Since September 2004, however, The Grassroots Council for a Sustainable Taiwan (GCST), formed from 15 NGOs throughout the country, has listed the road as one of Taiwan's 24 environmental 'Danger Spots', owing to the ecological damage it does and will bring to the area, and the fact that it is inherently "unsustainable".
Environmental groups are not alone in their opposition to the project. A vote carried out on the County Government's Web site, and a survey by Hualien's National Dong-Hwa University, indicate high levels of opposition amongst the public (70 percent and 63 percent, respectively*). Intellectuals such as Chen Yi-ling (陳怡伶) from National Hualien Teachers College are writing prolifically to express their dismay and to refute the claims of the TANEEB and other proponents. Lawyers have repeatedly submitted evidence of a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and pointed to the fact that the EIA has only been approved "conditionally". And in March 2005, Taiwan's Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長延) expressed concern about the lack of a cost-benefit analysis and the failure to heed the warnings of environmental groups (interpreted later by an Executive Yuan spokesperson as indicating a need for a new EIA).
