Refinery's neighbors tell city they want to feel safe

WOODS CROSS — Woods Cross city officials say Silver Eagle Refining has made great strides since a Jan. 12 fire that injured four men.

The company's refinery in Woods Cross now owns a fire truck, has trained personnel at its site and has purchased a foam system for its tanks. The refinery has set up a community working group and was planning an open house for Woods Cross residents.

"But we now realize there's a hazard in that facility that was beyond anybody's expectations," said Woods Cross city administrator Gary Uresk.

Even the engineering report from 2001 before the Morningside subdivision was approved couldn't have predicted that homes would be damaged by an exploding hydrogen pipe.

And that's what happened. A pipe carrying hydrogen exploded around 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 4. The concussion rocked Woods Cross, rendering a handful of homes uninhabitable and damaging at least 100 more. The blast was felt from Salt Lake City to Roy.

No injuries were attributed to the explosion, which officials are calling an accident.

About 160 residents attended a special Woods Cross City Council meeting Tuesday, held at the Legacy Preparatory Academy to accommodate the large crowd, and most of the residents who addressed the council stated they want to feel safe in their city.

And they want the city to help them.

Residents have been concerned that the Morningside subdivision was ever approved at all because it is located so close to the Silver Eagle Refinery. But Uresk said the city applied distance standards in the International Fire Code.

Uresk and South Davis Metro Fire District fire marshal Steve Cox told residents they should be glad their subdivision's developer was forced to build an 8-foot blast wall on top of an earthen berm because the refinery had originally planned to build a hydrogen tank, which was never installed.

Cox said he felt residents in the then-to-be-built subdivision needed a level of protection and the subdivision's developer built the wall as a barrier.

It's 22 feet tall on the refinery side and 14 feet tall on the residential side.

"For a blast wall, it did its job," Cox said.

Uresk said the neighborhood would have incurred more damage if the wall had never been built.

But resident Sam Sontag asked: "How many times are we going to call it an accident before more steps are taken?"

Woods Cross Mayor Kent Parry said city officials plan to work with regulators at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to determine what new standards could be applied, not only at Silver Eagle, but at the five refineries in Davis and Weber counties.

Parry said he plans to work with state legislators to handle the issues regionally.

Though some residents expressed interest in letting the city buy their homes to create a buffer between the neighborhood and the refinery, Linda Wood, whose home was at "ground zero," said she loves her neighborhood and wouldn't support such a plan.

Other residents said they would like a blast wall to protect other homes surrounding the refinery.

The City Council will hold further discussions about the explosion during its Nov. 17 meeting, which will be held at Woods Cross City Hall, 1555 S. 800 West, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Public comment will be welcomed.

e-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com

TWITTER: desnewsdavis