Dow Chemical Canada Inc. is planning a $41-million expansion at its Prentiss polyethylene plant.
The project to be built over two years will see new rail lines added and additional equipment installed to produce new grades of polyethylene using butene as feedstock.
Construction is expected to begin next month and the first phase will wrap up in October. A second phase will be built between May and October next year.
Construction will create 25 to 50 temporary jobs this year and 150 to 200 similar jobs next year. Once completed, the expansion is expected to add two to three new contractor positions.
Otto Parets, production leader at the plant, told Lacombe County’s municipal planning commission on Thursday the expansion is the biggest undertaken at the facility since 1999. The upgrade gives Dow greater flexibility in the kinds of feedstock it can process at the plant, about eight km southeast of Lacombe.
Introducing the new product is part of a business strategy meant to solidify the company’s market position in North America and boost value for shareholders.
The project will see three new rail sidings built on the northern edge of the site, providing room for 85 rail cars to store the small bead-like plastic pellets produced at the complex.
Three shorter lines will be used to store rail cars full of butene, the feedstock used for the new addition. Another section of track will be built to improve movement of rail cars on the site and a new tank unloading area will be added.
Among changes proposed by Dow is to go a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week rail car unloading and loading system. Currently, loading and unloading only takes place between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Parets said the current system causes a “significant bottleneck” and creates a safety issue as workers try to get all the loading done within curfew limitations.
Several county councillors questioned company officials closely about how much additional noise would be caused by all-night loading and the coupling and uncoupling of rail cars.
Dow is still studying the noise issue to ensure any new activity does not exceed Energy Resource Conservation Board regulations.
Randy Parks, Dow property tax manager, said the company recently bought land nearby from a property owner who had raised noise issues.
“I think we now have adequate buffer lands,” said Parks, adding there are no homes nearby.
Councillor Brenda Knight asked whether the rail yard expansion will increase the amount of light generated. Dow uses spotlights and lights carried by workers and the operation is not expected to cast off more light, she was told.
Emissions from the expansion are not expected to be much different than those released now and will fall within existing approved ranges.
The county’s municipal planning commission conditionally approved a development permit on Thursday.
The project also requires Environment Canada and Alberta Environment approvals.
Prentiss is home to Dow’s polyethylene plant, and two ethylene glycol plants operated by MEGlobal, a joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of Kuwait, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, and The Dow Chemical Company.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com