Fire damages U.S. refinery near Vancouver
CBC News/The Associated Press, Friday Feb 17, 2012
Fire rages at BP's Cherry Point refinery in Washington state, bordering Surrey, BC.
A fire at Washington’s largest oil refinery just across the border from Surrey, B.C. broke out Friday afternoon, sparking bursts of flames and creating a thick plume of black smoke that could be seen for miles.
Workers at the BP Cherry Point refinery near Blaine in Whatcom County were evacuated shortly after the fire broke out at around 2:30 p.m. Live television footage showed crews sending several streams of water into the fire and also using retardant foam to douse the facility.
The blaze was reportedly in a tower on the south side of the refinery. A BP spokesman didn’t tell the Bellingham Herald what the tower is normally used for or what it contained.
The refinery has its own fire crews but mutual aid was requested from other agencies. There were no report of injuries, state Department of Labor and Industries spokesman Hector Castro said.
The 2.6-square-kilometre refinery employs more than 800 people and can process up to 230,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
According to the BP website, the refinery is the largest supplier of fuel for the Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, B.C., airports. It also provides 20 per cent of Washington state’s gasoline, the website said.
The refinery was fined more than $69,000 in 2010 for 13 serious safety violations, Castro said. He added that all five of the state’s refineries have been fined for safety regulations.
Smoke from the BP refinery at Cherry Point, Wa., could be seen from Vancouver, BC.
Inspectors were heading to the refinery to investigate, Castro said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/02/17/bc-cherry-point-fire.html?cmp=rss
Kinder Morgan hears residents concerns on health and communications after oil spill
Abbotsford residents who live near Kinder Morgan’s Sumas terminal “tank farm” had plenty of questions and angry criticism for company representatives Monday night about the cloud of fumes that settled on the community on Jan. 24, when 110,000 litres of crude oil leaked from a storage silo.
Unhappy with Kinder Morgan’s slow response and vague answers to the community about the oil spill, locals organized a meeting at Straiton Community Hall.
Hugh Harden, vice-president of operations and engineering with Kinder Morgan, flew in from Calgary to sit on a panel at the meeting, along with Kinder Morgan communications manager Lexa Hobenshield.
Tim Sullivan of the National Energy Board also arrived from Calgary to observe. Other panel members included Abbotsford Fire Chief Don Beer, resident and moderator John Vissers, and Coun. Patricia Ross.
Speakers in the crowd of about 70 people blamed unexplained symptoms on the oil fumes, and took issue with Kinder Morgan describing the smell as “nuisance odours” or an “inconvenience” that posed no health concerns.
Vivian Betrand, who is pregnant and has two young children at home, was jogging on the morning of the spill and wanted to know if the fumes posed a health risk.
“I’m a little concerned about us being the canaries in the coal mine. We’re concerned about the most vulnerable members of the population. When does it become a health risk?” she asked.
Another woman, Dana Miller, said she is a healthy 40-year-old but has been to the hospital emergency ward twice with chest pains since the spill.
“Myself and the other adults in the house, as well as my two-year-old, have been sick. (We) went to the doctor with chest pains, respiratory problems, migraines, nausea. I’ve actually been taken to the ER twice in the last week,” Miller said, adding she didn’t even know there was a spill until her household received a letter from Kinder Morgan last week.
“An inconvenience in Auguston is when the raccoons get into my garbage. This is far more than that,” said firefighter Martin Sunderland.
“My wife and I were sick for a week since the spill, I had serious headaches, which I never get. My wife has allergies and asthma, and she was very ill in the days following the release. Don’t tell us there is no health concern,” he said.
Hobenshield said Fraser Health should be consulted on the health questions.
Fire Chief Don Beer and Harold Riedler, an emergency officer with the Ministry of Environment, both said a series of air quality tests conducted by an independent contractor didn’t detect any benzene, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) or high-level explosive vapours.
Riedler said Fraser Health, Environment Canada and the Ministry of Agriculture were kept abreast of events throughout the day.
However, Sunderland believes no air quality tests were made early in the day.
“We don’t know what the levels of benzene were at 6 a.m. because there was no testing done then,” said Sunderland, who has lived in Auguston for 11 years.
“When I bought my house there, I certainly didn’t sign up to be a detection system for Kinder Morgan,” he added, referring to Harden’s statement that the company relies on neighbours to warn them of odour issues.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the health of my family, with the value of my home in Auguston. You owe it to us to be honest and straightforward. We’re your neighbours. Start treating us like neighbours, not like some peons who don’t matter,” he said. “Your communications suck, they really do.”
People also questioned Kinder Morgan’s response time – one man said his wife could smell crude at 7 p.m. the day before the spill, and police report they got a call at 4:30 a.m.
Tiffany Kafka said a Kinder Morgan employee told her that monitors in Edmonton didn’t notice the leak for hours after it began.
Hobenshield said the company noted the leak just before 7 a.m. and notified agencies at about 8:30 a.m.
Several Auguston residents said they didn’t learn that there was an oil leak until hours or days later.
“We are reviewing our emergency response process and our public awareness program,” said Hobenshield. “We’re moving forward so it doesn’t happen again. We will be investigating how we can tighten up those communications challenges.”
Resident John Clarke presented some solutions for Kinder Morgan to adopt at the tank farm, which sits at the east end of McKee Road.
These include upgrading tanks with electronic monitors and vapour containment, and keeping a foam truck on site to smother fumes of future spills.
He suggested signs be put up in the neighbourhood when spills occur and shutting down Auguston elementary when spills happen “to err on the side of caution.”
The cause of the leak may have been a failure in a water drainage pipe in one of the six storage tanks at the Sumas Mountain site, but conclusive results won’t be known for several weeks, Harden said.
Although the facility is almost 60 years old, the tanks are serviced every five years and completely dismantled every 20 years, according to federal regulations. “We don’t feel age is a contributor to the incident,” Harden said.
The report will go to the NEB, which will decide whether to release it to the public.
Residents can stay in touch with each other by e-mail at sumasmountaincommunity@gmail.com.
CToth@abbotsfordtimes.com
