Effective Wednesday, April 22nd, LNG Canada had been ordered to begin submitting reports to the province within 48 hours each time black smoke is present during flaring at their facility in Kitimat for longer than 15 minutes at a time.
The Provincial Energy Regulator had sent a notice to LNG Canada’s Environment and Compliance lead on Tuesday, April 21st, informing them of the change, citing a breach of Condition 38 of their amended permit.
That condition states black smoke can not be present during normal flaring operations, and should not be emitted for longer than 15 minutes in a 2 hour period even during process upsets.
An inspection conducted over two days in February determined LNG Canada has breached that condition at least twice so far this year; On January 6th, black smoke was emitted from the flare stack for longer than 7 hours, and for more than 2 hours the following day.
The rational for the General Order issued to LNG Canada by Patrick Smook, BCER’s vice-president for compliance and operations // Courtesy: BC Energy Regulator
For it’s part, LNG Canada has said repeatedly that the frequent flaring at the Kitimat plant is part of the start up process, and is regulated by the province. They’ve said flaring at this rate should not be commonplace when regular operations are underway, but it was revealed in a meeting with the District last year that a malfunctioning flare tip on the stack, a piece of technology designed to reduce emissions, has led to the plant flaring far larger volumes of gas than originally intended to maintain the integrity of the stack. The Narwhal had reported in late January that internal documents show the BC Energy Regulator does not considering flaring for this reason to be a process upset.
The Province has now directed the company to submit a fresh report by August 15th identifying the underlying cause of the black smoke emissions that also includes a plan to fix it. It expects this mitigation work to be started by October 15th, and monthly progress reports to be submitted until March of next year.
LNG Canada has the option to review and appeal the order, but not at the same time. CFNR News has reached out to the company for clarification on how they intend to proceed.
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