site.btaEnvironment Minister Orders Bobov Dol TPP to Submit Investment Programme to Stop Air Pollution

The Minister of Environment and Water, Manol Genov, ordered the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water (RIEW) in Sofia to instruct the management of the Bobov Dol Thermal Power Plant (TPP) to present an investment programme containing short- and long-term measures to bring the plant's operations into compliance with the conditions of its complex permit, thereby stopping the emission of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, the Ministry of Environment and Water said in a press release on Tuesday. 

It was specified that this measure was announced during a meeting with the management of Bobov Dol TPP, at which urgent actions to prevent sulphur dioxide exceedances were discussed. Representatives of the Executive Environment Agency (EEA) and the RIEW - Sofia attended the meeting.

The operator was presented with an analysis of air quality monitoring data for 2025, carried out in accordance with the annual schedule approved by the minister, as well as numerous reports submitted for the Bobov Dol area. The analysis shows that, over the past year, RIEW - Sofia teams carried out 68 inspections at the Bobov Dol TPP. The company was issued with 53 prescriptions, 17 reports were drawn up for administrative violations, and 11 penalty orders were issued totalling BGN 2,420,000. Despite the increased control, it was reported that the data from the EEA's Mobile Automatic Station in the village of Golemo Selo shows a negative trend of exceeding sulphur dioxide standards throughout the year.

In 2026, air quality monitoring in the region will continue according to an established schedule to ensure continuous control and provide evidence to the European Commission of the existence of a systematic policy to address the problem. At the end of 2025, residents of the village of Golemo Selo in the municipality of Bobov Dol blocked the road to the municipal center in protest against air pollution from the Bobov Dol thermal power plant.