Previously: The Southwest Clean Air Agency, following dozens of complaints, began an investigation into strong fumes coming from Albina Fuel’s asphalt storage facility at 1300 W. Eighth St.
What’s new: The agency released a report and order Thursday, calling the fumes a nuisance, and requiring Albina to install new filtration and particle capturing equipment, as well as to train employees to use it well.
What’s next: Some of the new equipment will have to be installed as soon as Nov. 30; all measures must be completed by March 1, 2011.
After nine months of investigation into noxious fumes coming from Albina Fuel, Southwest Clean Air Agency issued a consent order Thursday requiring Albina to clean up its act.
Previously: The Southwest Clean Air Agency, following dozens of complaints, began an investigation into strong fumes coming from Albina Fuel's asphalt storage facility at 1300 W. Eighth St.
What's new: The agency released a report and order Thursday, calling the fumes a nuisance, and requiring Albina to install new filtration and particle capturing equipment, as well as to train employees to use it well.
What's next: Some of the new equipment will have to be installed as soon as Nov. 30; all measures must be completed by March 1, 2011.
The agency launched the investigation in January into Albina’s liquid asphalt storage facility at 1300 W. Eighth St. Between complaints called into the agency and those left with staff at the nearby Amtrak station, 135 people said that smells coming from Albina were overpowering and sometimes causing nausea, and burning sensations in their eyes and throats.
Investigators found numerous potential sources of the odors on the Albina site, including rail cars, loading trucks and storage tanks. Workers were leaving tanks and cars containing liquid asphalt open while they transferred the asphalt, creating visible gas clouds that often drifted directly into the Amtrak terminal at 1301 W. 11th St.
The smells, SWCAA said, are beyond a “reasonable minimum” and “unreasonably interfere with any other property owner’s use and enjoyment of” their property.
Albina must begin using activated carbon filtration caps when opening rail car or other hatches; install a much larger mist eliminator; install a better suction system to capture gasses; and train its employees to properly use the equipment.
All the work must be done by March 1. The agreement does not include penalties beyond the cost of installing the new equipment on site, Southwest Clean Air Agency Executive Director Bob Elliott said. The cost is expected to be around $136,000.
“There were things wrong with the controls they were using, and their practices were in vast need of improvement,” Elliott said. “I’m very optimistic there will be a significant reduction in odors.”
The gasses coming from Albina contain hydrogen sulfide, which is the scent that is causing Amtrak passengers and even those as far away as downtown’s Vancouvercenter to complain.
It does not pose a health risk at its concentration, but is a nuisance odor, the report concluded. One Amtrak employee, however, did go to the hospital last year as a reaction to overpowering fumes.
Jeff Arntson, director of Albina Fuels in Vancouver, declined to comment Thursday.
When the agency opened the investigation in January, Elliott had said it should take 60 to 90 days. But he said it quickly became the “biggest undertaking” at Southwest Clean Air in at least a decade.
A consultant, paid for by Albina, researched technology used by other petroleum storage facilities on the West Coast, to see if Albina was up to standards.
A SWCAA inspection in 2009 noted that as asphalt is unloaded from railcars to tanks, emissions are vented into and “partially captured” a mist eliminator that was installed in 1987. The eliminator was “barely” large enough when Albina put it in and as Albina expanded its facilities over time, became too small to handle all the fumes, Elliott said.
“We feel its the company’s responsibility to be on top of those kinds of things,”
Elliott said. “To be proactive and preventative as an opportunity to be a good neighbor.”
The Amtrak employee who went to the hospital due to the fumes read the report Thursday and said she was optimistic that conditions would improve. She said she’s plagued by sinus problems, nausea and diarrhea when Albina opens its fuel tanks.
“I’m not happy with that corporation at all,” said the employee, who did not wish to be named because she is not authorized by Amtrak to speak to the media. “I know its necessary for jobs, and the asphalt is necessary to do a lot of things in things in this world. As far as their nonchalant, uncaring attitude, it makes me sick.”
Others had raised concerns that the fumes would affect prospects on the nearby waterfront development, where developers recently began selling land for a planned $1.2 billion in condos, restaurants and office space.
“It’s important that as our downtown continues revitalizing and redeveloping, that we have compatible neighbors, so everyone can enjoy our downtown whether they’re living, working or playing,” Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said. “It sounds like Albina understands it’s important for them to be a good partner and neighbor.”
Albina outdates much of the development around it — the facility has been used to store petroleum products for more than 80 years, and Albina has used it as a bulk asphalt terminal since 1991.
The company’s headquarters are located on Eighth and Main Streets in downtown Vancouver. A family-owned company, it also has operations in Klamath Falls and Madras, Ore., as well as fueling sites in Tacoma and Aurora in Washington.
The consent order is a more collaborative agreement between the clean air authority and the company than a more one-sided order of mandate would have been, Elliott said.
But if employees fail to use the carbon tank caps or do not change them as they fill with particulates, the consent order notes Albina could face penalties of up to $10,000.
“I think (Albina director Arntson) completely understands if they aren’t vigilant in maintaining this equipment, that’s where further penalties could occur,” Elliott said.
