The discovery of high levels of methane gas on the Lakeland Mills site Friday caused an immediate shutdown of the operational planer mill and district energy system.
Sinclar Group Forest Products, the owners of Lakeland, halted operations there on Friday at 7:30 a.m. in what spokesman Cam McAlpine called "a precautionary measure to protect the workers at the site."
According to Sinclar president Greg Stewart, "The action was taken as a result of monitoring that found unusually high levels of methane gas at the Lakeland Mills site."
The source of the methane is now being explored, as well as its possible implication in the explosion and fire that destroyed the sawmill portion of the downtown Prince George operation on April 23.
Before Sinclar Group started up the planer mill and district energy system, the site was tested for traces of dangerous gases. That was followed up by more accurate soil sampling. Monitoring was ongoing every two hours at the planer facility.
Stewart said all the handheld results for the planer mill were negative but "the sawmill site did show some elevated samples" especially when additional soil sample was done. The levels in one test hole were high enough that, once verified by a lab, caused Sinclar enough concern to close down all heat sources.
Adjacent businesses and residents were also notified of the methane's presence, and Prince George Fire Rescue Service came to investigate on behalf of the neighbours but all of the tests were negative.
The source of the methane is still a mystery, but there are some ideas.
"Anyone who knows the history of that area of town knows there were landfills present there," Stewart said. "I can't say whether or not Lakeland is situated directly above an old landfill, but until we conduct further tests to understand the levels of methane and how it applies to our whole site, it is hard to speculate on its origins."
Lakeland's soil-based methane is not in a confined space so there is no danger of explosion, but Stewart wonders how it might have built up inside the sawmill. WorkSafeBC is currently investigating the explosion and fire, but Stewart did not know if their scientists drilled holes for methane as Sinclar did independently.
"In our discussions with WorkSafeBC, there hasn't been a lot of conversation about possible causes," he said. "It is most prudent for us to stay out of those discussions and not impose our thoughts about directions their investigation should or shouldn't go. I can't say what they have been pursuing."
"We are aware of the situation at Lakeland and are working with the employer to better understand the methane issue," said WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Donna Freeman. "As both investigations [Babine Forest Products and Lakeland] are still active, we are not in a position to provide those types of details, beyond what we have already released, until the investigations are completed."
All information from Sinclar's own methane studies will be provided to WorkSafeBC at their request, Stewart added, and they would co-operate fully with any subsequent investigations the workplace safety agency might wish to undertake. More drilling is scheduled to be done by Sinclar on the Lakeland site.
