Industry Ministry Orders Factory Shutdown Over Oil Slick
Industry Ministry officials have ordered the immediate shutdown of a recycling plant in Prachinburi after floodwaters spread oil and industrial waste into local communities. A special Top Gun team is containing the slick with oil booms and surfactants while investigators collect samples and prepare legal action. The factory will remain closed until safety improvements are made.
Industry Minister Warawut Silpa-archa revealed that he had ordered the Top Gun special operations team and the Department of Industrial Works to investigate reports of rainbow‑like oil slicks mixing with floodwater in Huai Wa subdistrict, Sri Maha Pho district, Prachinburi. The team, working with provincial industrial, natural resources and environment offices and local administrations, traced the contamination to leaking industrial waste ponds and waste‑treatment areas of Green Environment Technology Co., Ltd., which were submerged under floodwater up to three metres above rice‑field level. Using Section 35(4) of the Factory Act, the provincial industrial office ordered the company to explain its factory conditions and leakage‑prevention measures, while Section 37 required the covering of all industrial waste pits to prevent further spread. Water and waste samples were taken from inside the plant and from outside locations for analysis at the Eastern Industrial Pollution Research and Warning Centre. Top Gun spokesman Nonthanut Bunnak said the response is being carried out in three phases: an urgent phase that installs oil booms, sprays surfactant to separate oil from water, uses absorbent sheets, and builds sandbag barriers higher than the water level; a second phase after water recedes that surveys impacted areas inside and outside the plant, strengthens preventive measures, and coordinates rehabilitation; and finally, the Department of Industrial Works has invoked Section 39 to order a total and immediate shutdown of the factory’s operations pending corrective action, while gathering evidence and filing a police report.
