Silver Eagle hoping to regain residents' trust

WOODS CROSS — Silver Eagle Refining officials say the company has lost the trust of the community but add it is working hard to regain its own confidence and prove it can once again operate safely.

Will it have that trust back by Jan. 24 when it plans to restart one of its crude oil refining units?

The response depends on whom you ask.

Some residents have no problem with the refinery starting up one of its lowest-risk units. Some are miffed that the refinery is starting up before their homes have been repaired and others would like to move out as soon as possible.

The company's Woods Cross refinery was the site of an explosion Nov. 4 that severely damaged four homes, rendering two of them uninhabitable.

Since November, the refinery's insurance company has received 271 damage claims, said Mike Redd, the company's new vice president of refining and operations. About 45 claims have been settled with residents.

The company brought Redd, an engineering consultant, on in late November as a new face of the refinery, and Tuesday night, he restated how aware the company is that it has lost the community's trust and that it has a hard road ahead to earn that trust back.

Here's how it plans to do that:

Silver Eagle has hired renowned firm ABS Consulting to evaluate the refinery's processes, procedures, policies and to find out where the failures were that led to the Nov. 4 explosion.

It has hired Mistras to inspect the refinery and test the pipes' metallurgy.

Redd said he wants residents to call or e-mail him with concerns so he can respond and promised to remove logjams in the way of residential repairs.

Silver Eagle plans to hold open houses before it restarts any of its units, which it shut down in November.

At 10,000-barrel-a-day capacity, it is estimated the refinery has lost around $800,000 a day since it stopped refining following recommendations from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

Woods Cross resident Alison Picket said that though she's frustrated at being unable to return home while she waits for repairs to be completed, she believes the refinery will make things right.

"They can't afford another disaster," she said.