The Meeting of the Supervisory Committee for the Environmental Impact Prevention, Mitigation, and Monitoring Plan of the Coal Terminal Project No. 65-4/2017 was held on Friday, December 15, 2017, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the meeting room of the Map Ta Phut Industrial Port Office, Rayong Province. Ms. Krittayaporn Tappatat, Deputy Governor (Operations Line 3) of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, chaired the meeting. The meeting acknowledged and approved the minutes of Meeting No. 64-3/2017, which was held on September 15, 2017.
Environmental impact monitoring results for BLCP Power Station Units 1 and 2 in October 2017 showed that the amount of air pollutants discharged from the power plant stacks, ambient air quality, general noise levels, wastewater quality from the treatment system, water quality discharged from the cooling water discharge canal, and seawater quality all met the specified standards. For seawater temperature within a 500-meter radius from the cooling water discharge point, a maximum value of 30.8°C was found, which is still within the standard criteria allowing for an increase of no more than 2°C from the natural temperature. In terms of marine ecology, phytoplankton Chaetoceros sp. and zooplankton Nauplius of Copepod were found, which are common species.
During September – November 2017, BLCP Power Station underwent maintenance shutdowns for Units 1 and 2, resulting in no reported data for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, opacity, and particulate matter emissions from the stacks during that period. However, the reported levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide during periods without maintenance shutdowns remained within the specified standards. Regarding ambient air quality in the Map Ta Phut area, the Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) values encountered instrument measurement issues at the Mab Chalood station from September 7 – November 30, 2017. However, values for particulate matter less than 10 microns, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide remained within standards.
In terms of operations, BLCP Power Station received a total of 879,175 tons of coal from August 30 – November 23, 2017. The cumulative average sulfur content up to November 2017 was 0.41%, which complies with EIA requirements (annual average not exceeding 0.45%). Unit 1 generated 710,180 MWh-net and Unit 2 generated 1,078,904 MWh-net during September – November 2017. Additionally, a total of 90,500.60 tons of fly ash and 10,519.91 tons of bottom ash were exported. Hazardous and non-hazardous waste totaling 149.84 tons and 276.14 tons, respectively, were managed.
The project continues to implement social and environmental activities, such as the aquaculture farm project, which generated approximately 200,000 Baht in income, and the organic farming project based on the Sufficiency Economy philosophy, where 14 farmers received organic certification. Furthermore, over 6,088 million Baht in Value Added Tax and over 808 million Baht in withholding tax have been submitted from 2006 to the present. This also includes community merit-making events (Thod Pha Pa Samakkee), aquatic animal release activities, and mobile medical units. The meeting acknowledged all operational results and scheduled the next Supervisory Committee meeting for March 2018.