Last January in Unity, a foul odour was detected making some residents sick, as a part of the investigation, the findings of the third-part engineering assessment have been released.

The Ministry of Energy Resources (ER) ordered the Tervita Unity Waste Processing Facility to obtain a third-party assessment to evaluate the current equipment, the leak detection and response system, details of wastes received, integrity of the disposal wells and caverns used for storage of wastes, the emergency response plan and identify other actions required to ensure safe and environmentally friendly operations.

The waste that was the believed cause of the odour in January 2018, is classified as a Class 8 Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG), which Tervita was not approved to accept and has since ceased accepting this type of waste. A part of the assessment was to determine the effects of the Class 8 TDG waste on the facility.

The findings showed that the in regard to well integrity, it was determined that the amount of the Class 8 TDG injected into the caverns would have a negligible influence on the bring chemistry and little effect on the current corrosion rate and well life expectancy.

Other conclusions from the third-party report included that multiple safeguards are in place at Tervita for receiving and handling the waste material, procedures to determine the replacement of pipe, valves and fittings that are exposed to the slurries that pass through the system.

Notes of the company’s standard operating procedures show intent to protect personnel and site boundaries in the event of a spill. The report also identified Tervita’s spill response procedures and emergency response plan for the facility have been updated to become compliant with those required by the government.

Additionally, Tervita has implemented a recommendation from the engineers, where they are required to immediately report any release containing H2S in the source of the product greater than 1000ppm as and incident; and, any situation where there system shuts down due to H2S concentrations greater than 10ppm as an incident.

ER stated that the third-party assessment reports fully met their requirements. To view the report in its entirety, click here.