South Korea’s chip ambitions threaten big environmental toll

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — These days when Kim Hoon strolls alongside the streams that run by way of his hometown, he notices clouds of vapor rising off the water’s floor.

The streams circulation between rising clusters of semiconductor factories in what not way back was a quiet neighborhood of farmers rising cabbages and inexperienced onions. The plumes of frothy mist are created when sizzling wastewater from the chip crops comes into contact with the chilly of the stream.