If you are new to the community you may not yet be aware that one of our neighbours is the Burnaby Terminal of the Trans Mountain Pipeline System, colloquially referred to as "the tank farm". It's located just south of the intersection of Gaglardi Way and Burnaby Mountain Parkway.
This week we've heard several residents mention that they have smelled strong crude oil-like odours along Burnaby Mountain Parkway and University Drive East and sometimes drifting into campus that they suspect originate from the tank farm.
There should not be any noticeable smells like this coming from the facility. If you smell a crude oil or petroleum-like odour that you believe may be coming from the tank farm, please report it so that it can be investigated and dealt with as it may represents a health or safety issue for our neighbourhood.
Emergency odours: If you believe an odour might represent an emergency situation, call Trans Mountain's emergency line, listed on their website,
Non-emergency odours: we recommend that you report odours by calling Metro Vancouver's 24-hour Air Quality Complaint Line at 604-436-6777. They will pass the information along to Trans Mountain to investigate. Calling this line instead of Trans Mountain allows the municipal authorities to be aware of possible impacts on, and concerns of citizens.
Please also let us know by emailing univercitycommunity@gmail.com so that we can track how much of an issue this is, including the time, date, location, description of the door and what kind of followup - if any - you received from TransMountian.
Unlike most other industrial facilities, Trans Mountain does not fall under the jurisdiction of Metro Vancouver. Although Trans Mountain will investigate odours at the request of Metro Vancouver, Metro Vancouver has no enforcement powers with respect to the tank farm. This role is instead held by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). If you have concerns that are not resolved by calling the Air Quality Complaint Line or Trans Mountain, you can contact CER to request further assistance. As above, we'd appreciate you letting us know if you contact CER, and what the outcome is.
