Enforcement order issued to Owens Corning following plant fire

Jan. 26, 2016 – Following a fire early this month, Owens Corning Insulating Systems Canada GP will be required to monitor air emissions while the company restores secondary air pollution control equipment, according to the Alberta government.

On January 4, 2016, a fire at Owens Corning’s Edmonton, Alta., 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 such, the company must monitor and 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.

According to the government statement, Owens Corning must perform additional monitoring on the curing oven stack, including manual stack surveys, and must also implement an approved ambient air monitoring plan.