An investigation is underway at Teck Trail Operations following an explosion and visible plume of smoke coming from the plant on the first of January.
A Trail Times reader alerted the newsroom on Tuesday and shared a photo of the incident, which occurred in a slag furnace on Monday, Jan. 1, at approximately 2:30 p.m.
“This shook our house,” Carol Schlender explained.
“So we immediately went outside to see what happened and saw this,” she said, referring to her photos of billowing dark smoke.
Catherine Adair, Community Relations Leader, clarified the incident happened on the southeast corner of the Trail site.
“There was an operating disruption from over-pressurization of the No. 2 Slag Furnace,” Adair told the Trail Times.
There were no injuries, she said.
“However, there was a short duration release of smoke that was outside of normal operations,” Adair explained. “The incident was reported to regulatory authorities.”
Air quality at the community monitoring stations remained within the normal operating range, she noted.
“An investigation is being conducted into the cause of the incident,” Adair concluded.
“The rest of Trail Operations was not affected and there is no impact on production.”