Summary Report Environmental Impact Assessment Report for Thermal Power Plant Project of Gheco-one Company Limited which is a project that may seriously affect the community with respect to the quality of the environment, natural resources and health Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. CONTENT PAGE 1. Introduction -1- 1.1 Background and Status of the Project -1- 1.2 Justification for the project operation -2- 1.3 Objective of report preparation -3- 1.4 Scope of study area -4- 1.5 Study scope and method -4- 1.5.1 Study of project description -6- 1.5.2 Study of existing environmental condition of the area -7- 1.5.3 Public hearing process for consulting the public and interested -10- persons in the process of environmental and health impact assessment 1.5.4 Environmental impact assessment -11- 1.5.5 Health impact assessment -16- 1.5.6 Environmental impact prevention and mitigation measure and -24- environmental impact monitoring measure 1.6 Consideration criteria for the project’s alternatives -24- 1.6.1 Alternatives for project site -24- 1.6.2 Alternatives for production technology -24- 2. Project description -25- 2.1 Project site -25- 2.2 Project layout -25- 2.3 Fuel -31- 2.4 Chemicals -34- 2.5 Products -34- 2.6 Transportation -41- 2.7 Production process -42- CONTENT (CONT’D) AIR SAVE Co., Ltd. 5337A/EHIA/Content_GHECO-One Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. PAGE 2.8 Auxiliary system and public utility system -42- 2.8.1 Water supply system -42- 2.8.2 Cooling system -46- 2.8.3 Management of coal stockyard area. -52- 2.8.4 Coal conveyor system -52- 2.8.5 Coal pulverization system. -56- 2.8.6 Drainage and flood prevention system -56- 2.8.7 Sodium hypochlorite production system. -59- 2.9 Pollution control. -59- 2.9.1 Air pollution -59- 2.9.2 Wastewater management -67- 2.9.3 Waste management -69- 2.9.4 Noise control. -72- 2.10 Employee -74- 2.11 Occupational health and safety -74- 2.12 Public relations, Community relations, and complaint handling plan -74- 2.13 Green area -80- 3. Summary of Environmental Impacts -80- AIR SAVE Co., Ltd. 5337A/EHIA/Content_GHECO-One Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. Summary Report Environmental Impact Assessment Report for Thermal Power Plant Project of Gheco-one Company Limited (which is a project that may seriously affect the community with respect to the quality of the environment, natural resources and health) 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Status of the Project Thermal Power Plant Project of Gheco-One Co., Ltd. is located on a vacated land inside the existing 640-MW power plant facility of Glow SPP3 Co., Ltd. (in operation since 1999) in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Muaeng Rayong District, Rayong Province. This project uses bituminous coal as fuel and has gross power of 700 MW. The environmental impact assessment report of this project was approved by the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) in May 2008 and its report for modification of the project description was later approved in September 2009. Such modification was about changing location of a run-off pond for wastewater generated from coal stockyard to ensure appropriateness for area condition and consistency with engineering principle. The project’s status is now in the process of construction. Later on, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has regulated a project or activity which may seriously affect the community with respect to the quality of the environment, natural resources and health to prepare an environmental and health impact assessment, to conduct public hearing process for consulting the public as well as interested persons, and to obtain opinions of any independent organizations prior to the operation to ensure consistency with the Constitution of Thailand B.E. 2550. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has therefore announced its Notifications to prescribe criteria, method, and operating procedure for preparation of environmental and health impact assessment for a project or activity which may seriously affect the community with respect to the quality of the environment, natural resources and health on 29 December 2009, and has later announced its Notifications to prescribe type, size, and procedure for a project or activity which may seriously affect the community with respect to the quality of the environment, natural resources and health, on 31 August 2010, that a project owner (government agency, state enterprise, or private company) needs to prepare an environmental impact assessment report. Air Save Co., Ltd. 5337A/EHIA/Summary_GHECO-One -1- Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. To ensure that the project has been entirely complied with the Constitution of Thailand B.E. 2550 and operating procedures as prescribed in the above mentioned Notifications, the Company has decided to review the project’s environmental and health impact assessment by appointing Air Save Company Limited, which is an ONEP-registered consulting company for preparation of an environmental impact assessment report, to study and revise the environmental impact assessment together with specialists from the Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, in order to conduct additional health impact assessment. 1.2 Justification for the project operation Electricity is a basic public utility system that is critically important for the country’s development. To ensure that there will be adequate electricity supply for increasing demand in the future as a result of social development and economic growth, the government has realized this problem and a significance of development plan for power. The Ministry of Energy, as an agency being responsible for directly supervise the national energy policy, has therefore established Power Development Plan (PDP) with objective to plan an appropriate program for construction of power plants using various fuel types to ensure adequate supply for increasing electricity demand in the next 10-15 years. According to the anticipated electricity demand and installed capacity of Thailand in the Power Development Plan 2010- 2030 (or known as PDP 2010), the overall installed capacity at the end of December 2009 was 29,212 MW which could be classified by generation sources into 14,328.1 MW (49%) from EGAT’s power plant facility and 14,883.9 MW (51%) from independent power producers (IPP). Of 51% of power purchased from IPPs, about 14,243.9 MW (48.8%) was purchased from domestic IPPs, while 640 MW (2.2%) was from neighboring countries. Nonetheless, the peak electricity demand of the country in 2009 was 22,315.4 MW or about 76.3% of the national overall installed capacity. It is anticipated that in 2011, 2016, and 2021 the national electricity demand will be increased to 24,568 MW, 30,642 MW, and 37,856 MW, respectively. At present, the government has promoted private sector to participate in the Power Development Program and invest in the supply of the electricity to EGAT under various schemes. GHECO-One Company Limited, which is a joint venture between Glow Energy Public Company Limited and Hemaraj Land and Development Public Company Limited, has realized the significant of this Power Development Program and therefore has planned to develop a thermal power plant project (with gross power of 700 MW) that uses bituminous Air Save Co., Ltd. 5337A/EHIA/Summary_GHECO-One -2- Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. coal as fuel. This project has been developed with the objective to produce and supply electricity to EGAT under the Independent Power Producers (IPP) program which GHECO- One Company Limited was selected as a winning bidder by the Ministry of Energy in December 2007. The GHECO-One Project is scheduled for commercial operation in the 4th quarter of 2011. The project has realized its corresponding environmental impact, in particular the issue of air pollution, this power plant therefore will use coal with very low sulfur content (not exceeding 1% of sulfur) and will install a high efficient air pollution control technology to ensure very low emission rate when comparing to the control standard. In addition, the joint venture has also invested in an improvement program to strengthen efficiency of air pollution control system of the existing plants which belong to its affiliates before proceeding with the project operation to ensure that overall pollutant emission loading in the area will not be increased after the project being in operation period. 1.3 Objective of report preparation (1) To revise the project descriptions based on data available in the EIA report being approved by ONEP, to study the existing environmental conditions of the project’s surrounding in order to identify, to classify, and to assess potential impacts or to predict potential effects on environmental conditions that may occur after the operation of this project, and to propose environmental impact prevention and mitigation measures and environmental quality monitoring measures. (2) To identify causes, factors, health threats, or other relevant health effects which are associated with the project operation, to assess health impact on the community and workers that is related to the project operation, and to propose health impact prevention and mitigation measures and health impact monitoring measures. (3) To conduct participation process for the public and stakeholders in the environmental and health impact assessment. (4) This information is used for project permission for permitted authorization. Air Save Co., Ltd. 5337A/EHIA/Summary_GHECO-One -3- Thermal Power Plant Project GHECO-One Co., Ltd. 1.4 Scope of study area Initially, the study area for environmental and health impact assessment has been specified to cover area in 5-kilometer radius of the Project’s site (as shown in Figure 1.4-1).