Shell officials continue to monitor a tank at the Corunna Refinery tank farm that developed problems Sunday afternoon.
At around 4:30pm, spokesman Randy Provencal says employees making routine inspections noticed an odour, and, upon further investigation, discovered oil on the top of the floating roof of the massive tank.
Additional Chemical Valley Emergency Coordinating Organization (CVECO) foam equipment was requested and St. Clair firefighters responded with their special ladder truck with attached camera equipment that allows them a visual of the tank without having to put personnel near it.
"We continue to monitor the tank and apply suppressant foam which acts as odour mitigation," says Provencal. "We recently conducted air monitoring right at the source at the tank and there were no VOC's detected there, so that's good news."
Provencal says they are working on plans on how to remove the crude oil and water inside the tank.
"It's a floating roof on this tank, so as a result it's not uncommon for there to be water in the tank," he says. "We need to be able to remove both the crude oil and the water and we're working on plans right now to do that."
They haven't yet been able to determine just what occurred, nor is it know yet how much product is inside the tank.
No one was injured and the Ministry of the Environment was notified.
