A petroleum company with a refinery in Detroit is apologizing to those put off by a massive foul odour this weekend.
Marathon Petroleum, which was a large refinery in southwest Detroit, said that a malfunctioning flare at the facility caused the emission of a strong natural gas odour during the early-morning hours of Sunday. The odour was picked up in portions of the Detroit area as well as in Windsor, according to comments posted on the Blackburn News Essex Facebook page.
"Marathon Petroleum has determined that the source of the odour is a flare at the refinery that is not functioning properly and needs to be repaired," said Marathon spokesperson Jamal Kheiry in a statement provided to the Detroit Free Press. "In order to make repairs, we must de-activate the flare. Flares are safety devices that allow us to safely combust excess materials at the refinery, and we are working on de-activating the flare as safely and quickly as possible."
The statement goes on to address the strong, widespread odour emitted from the refinery.
"We apologize to the community for the odour and the inconvenience," said Kheiry. "Our highest priority is the safety of the community where we operate and those who work at our refinery. We will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible to resolve this matter. We are conducting a thorough investigation to determine what caused this release, and we will implement the necessary corrective actions so that this does not happen again."
The city of Detroit confirmed in a tweet that not only has the city sent its inspectors to the refinery to determine the source of the problem, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is also involved.
https://twitter.com/CityofDetroit/status/1092113023974756358
There have been no reports in Windsor of anybody sickened by the odour.