Back in April, when Pinnacle Pellet’s new wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) was in its commission stage, president and chief operating officer of Pinnacle Pellet, Leroy Reitsma told the Lakes District News that “positive results” were expected.
Three months later Pinnacle Pellet’s Burns Lake plant has its positive results.
“The results [of the emissions stack test] have been received and we are happy to confirm that the WESP is operating well within the permitted level,” Reitsma said.
The wet electrostatic precipitator, a $5 million investment for Pinnacle Pellet, was put through its first Ministry of Environment’s emissions stack test at the end of June, with expectations of delivering positive results on top of that investment.
The new WESP system became operational earlier this year, and it uses electrostatic energy to trap wet particles in the piping.
The emissions stack test is an air test that is focused on the level of particle emissions.
Previous efforts had been made to improve on the old system, but Pinnacle Pellet repeatedly failed to pass the air quality control tests, and had come under scrutiny by residents in the surrounding area.
A web poll conducted by the Lakes District News showed that 62.5 per cent of those who answered the poll question were skeptical of Pinnacle Pellet’s ability to pass the air quality control test that was just administered.
However, there was no uncertainty from Reitsma about what the results of the air quality control test would be.
“The only way I can see us not being compliant would be not completing the commission stage,” Reitsma said back in April.
Pinnacle Pellet’s plant in Burns Lake is the largest of the company’s six B.C. plants with the capacity to produce 400,000 metric tonnes of product annually.
The five other wood pellet plants located in B.C. are in Armstrong, Strathnaver, Williams Lake, Quesnel and Houston, and the company’s offices are located in Prince George and Vancouver.
Reitsma said that the only portion of the emissions control that had plagued the company is no longer operational, and added that the desired results moving forward are expected.
“The other portions of the plant have demonstrated a consistent level of compliance so we have no reason to believe that we will not fully achieve desired results as we move forward,” Reitsma said.
In addition to passing its air quality control test, the Burns Lake plant was found to be fully compliant in its latest WorkSafeBC inspection in June, as well.
