More than six weeks after an incident forced the unplanned shutdown of Metro Vancouver‘s only refinery, work is set to start on reactivating the facility.
On Jan. 21, Burnaby’s Parkland Refinery experienced a “plugged line” as crews were trying to restart it following a bout of unseasonably cold weather, according to the operator. That resulted in an unplanned release of emissions, experienced across parts of the region as a foul odour.
On Friday, the company said it would begin restarting the refinery on Sunday, March 10 following a “thorough inspection.”
The restart process, according to Parkland, will take between one and two weeks “during which there will be periods of elevated flaring, and some potential for odours, noise, and smoke.”
The company added that it has added extra third-party air quality monitoring in place, on top of existing equipment and Metro Vancouver’s own monitoring system.
Last month, the company held an open house for Burnaby residents to explain the January incident and to address complaints it had been too slow to provide information about what had gone wrong.
Parkland has said it is conducting an internal investigation into the incident and has pledged to make the results public.
However, it says at no time during the incident were air quality standards exceeded.
Burnaby City Council has called for an independent investigation and has billed the company nearly $30,000 to pay for police and firefighter deployment during the Jan. 21 incident.