Enforcement order issued to Edmonton manufacturing company following fire at plant

Incident details

• A fire at Owens Corning’s Edmonton fibreglass manufacturing plant damaged a piece of air pollution abatement equipment – a secondary air scrubber – on its insulation batting production line.
• A remedial solution to replace the curing oven’s secondary air scrubber could take more than six months to implement.
• As a result of the fire, the company has and will contravene its Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval without this piece of pollution abatement equipment in place.

Terms of the Enforcement Order

• The company must monitor and immediately notify Alberta Environment and Parks of any significant deviation from normal performance of the primary air emission scrubber on the curing oven. If the air emission limits of the approval are exceeded, the operations of that production line must immediately cease.
• The company must perform additional monitoring on the curing oven stack, including manual stack surveys, and must also implement an approved ambient air monitoring plan.
• The company must notify Alberta Environment and Parks and the Strathcona Industrial Association if the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective for particulate matter is exceeded.

Enforcement orders are one of many tools – including education and prevention – used by the Alberta government to ensure all Albertans can continue to enjoy a safe and healthy environment.