Air quality issues are still plaguing Pinnacle Pellet's Burns Lake plant more than a year after start up.
The plant's emissions were recently discussed by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) board members during a presentation on air quality by Ben Weinstein, air quality meteorologist for the Ministry of Environment and Bulkley Valley Airshed Management Society member.
Tom Greenaway, RDBN's director of area C, Fort St. James rural, asked Weinstein for an update on Pinnacle Pellet's commission process.
"Pinnacle Pellet's air quality is terrible ... when is this going to be fixed up?" Greenaway asked.
Weinstein said Pinnacle Pellet has been having issues, which has resulted in reduced air quality.
"They have struggled for a year with start up issues and new dryers they had installed were not working and were gumming up the process with tar," he said.
As reported in the Lakes District News edition of April 4, 2012, Lorne Davies, Pinnacle Pellet's corporate safety and environmental officer said the commissioning process had taken a lot longer than expected.
He said the company was pioneering the use of new technology at the plant and had run into issues that are being corrected.
Davies explained that during 2009-2010 the Ministry of Environment imposed new regulations to increase emission controls for new plants. He said because of this, Pinnacle Pellet's Burns Lake plant, which to his understanding is the first pellet plant to come online in Northern B.C. after the new regulations, installed a high efficiency cyclone system, in addition to micro mist wet scrubbers.
He said because the technology is new and has never been used behind a rotary wood dying system in a pellet plant before, there has been a number of issues.
He pointed out that the issues have more to do with operational efficiency than just emission problems however he said, that once the new technology is running properly the plant's emissions will be substantially lower.
"The system is not running efficiently and plugs up, which shuts the plant down," Davies said.
Weinstein said to the RDBN board that the Ministry of Environment had received a lot of complaints from members of the public about the emissions.
"I put a hand held reader in the yard of a complainant who lived about eight kilometres away from the plant and this detected very high PM emissions .... the Ministry of Environment were close to shutting down their night shift, but fortunately Pinnacle Pellet tweaked their process and since the beginning of this month there has been improved air quality," he said.
Suntanu Dalal, from Ministry of Environment communications said, "Ben Weinstein’s conversation with the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako board was in reference to Pinnacle Pellet’s airborne emissions in May, prior to the first of two planned upgrades to the emissions control system. His statements referencing this period are accurate."
Dalal said that once the first upgrade to Pinnacle Pellet's system occurred in early June 2012, airborne emissions and air quality at the monitoring site adjacent to the pellet plant were markedly improved.
"We expect further improvements of both airborne emissions and local air quality after the second upgrade scheduled for late July," he said.
Davies said to Lakes District News that there has been a huge improvement in air quality and emissions since recent upgrades to the plant and further upgrades will be happening in July and August.
"We are still following a process, but emissions have been substantially reduced," he said.
According to Davies both the Ministry of Environment and an independent agency comes to the plant to test emissions on a quarterly basis.
"We are hoping that further testing and sampling conducted in August will show improved results. There has been a marked improvement since May and we are hoping for more improvements," he added.