Smith Township natural gas cryogenic plant resumes partial operations
A natural gas cryogenic plant in Smith Township has resumed partial operations after a Christmas morning explosion led to a fire at the facility.
A spokesperson with Energy Transfer confirmed in an email Monday that their Revolution cryogenic plant has started some operations back up.
“The required notifications were made to the Pennsylvania (Department of Environmental Protection) about our plan and schedule,” spokesperson Alexis Daniel said. “Additionally, we made notifications to the neighbors of the facility, county 911 departments, first responders and local municipal officials.”
Smith Township fire Chief Brandon Kriznik said his department received word from Energy Transfer last week that the plant would begin resuming operations. Neighbors reported seeing flaring at the plant over the weekend.
Emergency crews were dispatched to the plant about 7:40 a.m. Dec. 25 and found a large piece of equipment on fire. Firefighters remained on the scene to monitor the fire, but could not put it out as it was still being fed natural gas. The fire was extinguished by 6 p.m.
“All we did was standby there and just make sure nothing happened. We had to let the gas burn itself out,” Kriznik said at the time. “What happens is when you put the fire out, the gas just omits from there and goes (into the atmosphere) from there. It’s safer and better to let it burn it off so the gas burns off.”
The DEP sent inspectors to the plant the Jan. 3 to investigate the incident. Daniel said that Energy Transfer continues to investigate the cause of the fire.
The Texas-based company and the DEP have released few details about their investigations and what the specific cause of the fire may be.
DEP spokesperson Neil Shader said following the fire that they had received a report “describing the equipment failure that led to the fire.” Shader did not provide an update on the DEP’s investigation when reached by phone Monday.