Chevron to finish flaring of waste gases Saturday evening

The Chevron Pascagoula Refinery is expected to end its flaring safety mechanism Saturday evening.

The refinery has been flaring hydrogen since early Friday as part of a safety procedures to burn off the natural gases, according to a refinery spokesman.

"The flaring is a safety procedure we use," Alan Sudduth, spokesman for Chevron, said. "The flaring does not present any kind of threat to the community's air quality."

Friday afternoon and evening the refinery, which is east and south of the city, had an unusually high flame coming out of burn-off stacks. The flame became more noticeable after dark.

At 7 p.m., one large stack was emitting a flame that appeared to shoot 50 to 75 feet into the air and could be seen clearly from Interstate 10.

Earl Etheridge, the Jackson County Emergency Management director, said Chevron advised him Friday evening that the refinery had had a hydrogen sulfide alarm going off inside the plant, but nothing was detected outside the grounds of the refinery.

"To be safe, they shut the area of the plant down and are burning off the waste gas until they can figure out what is wrong," Etheridge said.

Sudduth said they conducted air monitoring throughout Friday evening and all readings were within the normal ranges.

"We expect to be finished with the flaring by nightfall Saturday," he said.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Chevron to finish flaring of waste gases Saturday evening ."