Pollution Control Department (PCD) director-general Supat Wangwongwatana said the agency was reviewing toxic-emission standards at power plants with a view to making them tougher. It will also be looking at the control of the use of heavy metals, especially mercury.

The PCD had earlier discussed lowering the emission of nitrogen oxide to below 200 parts per million (ppm) from the previous 350ppm; dust to be below 70 micrograms per square metre from the previous 120 micrograms per square metre; and sulphur dioxide to be below 320ppm.

Supat said it should finalise recommendations for the new standards next month, after which they will be submitted to the National Environmental Board (NEB) before implementation.

Supat accompanied Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Sanidwong na Ayudhaya to the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate yesterday, visiting factories, inspecting water pollution at Ta Kuan Bay and talking with local people.

Kasem said the ministry's recent study on the eastern region's overall potential was not a plan to expand the petrochemical industry in the area.

"It's a search for alternatives, because the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate cannot support more projects," he said, citing the reason for the study as water shortages and other environmental impacts of plants.

The new plan is gathering all aspects in a national agenda and should be finished in two months, when it will be submitted to the NEB and the Cabinet, he added.

The pollution-control action plan aims to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 5-10 per cent in 2008. Kasem said the ministry had asked industrial operators to submit their pollution-control plans to the PCD, so that officials can randomly check whether they have implemented them.

The ministry also asked operators to buy easy-to-use VOC detection kits instead of using the Bt300,000 laboratory analysis equipment, he said.

Methee Euapinyakul, manager of BLCP's coal-fired power plant, said the company had controls in place as it uses Australian bituminous coal, which only has a sulphur dioxide emission of under 0.7 per cent.

Since the plant started operating in October, its toxic emissions have never exceeded the level advised in the environmental impact assessment report, he said.

According to sulphur dioxide-detection devices installed within a 10-kilometre radius of the plant, everything is within legal limits, he said, adding that BLCP is ready to follow the government's new measures to reduce environmental impacts.

Methee also revealed that an idea was brought up during Deputy Prime Minister and Industry Minister Kosit Panpiemras's March 8 trip to Map Ta Phut that the 200 plants on the industrial estate would each contribute Bt500,000 - a total of Bt100 million - for social projects with local residents.

He said that currently, all plants were generally assumed to be polluters despite the fact that many are equipped with world-class technologies and are environmentally responsible, while some 1,500 plants outside the estate are not strictly scrutinised.

He urged the government to make clear which factories are polluters and, if it could prove any wrongdoing, they should be shut down.

Meanwhile, Rayong People Civil Network coordinator Sutthi Atchasai said the network would next week announce a plan for the social projects to be submitted to Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla.

He said the network had no knowledge of any deal that local residents around the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate wanted Bt400 million to tackle environmental problems and improve the quality of life for the community.

Sutthi acknowledged that the network had divided opinions, with local leaders wanting financial assistance while the rest of the network wanted policy-level changes for long-term solutions.

Janjira Pongrai

The Nation

RAYONG