Industrial Neighbour A Part Of Inglewood

A Look Inside Shell Lubricants & Grease Plant

By Lisa Kadane

Mark Demong, Health Safety and Environment Coordiantor

With its maze of exposed pipes, vast and echoey warehouse, clanky metal stairways and giant kettles brimming with thick grease, the interior of Shell Canada Products’ Calgary Lubricants and Grease Plant would make a good set for the next movie starring Freddy Kreuger. But what goes on inside the sprawling facility is far less sinister that a nightmare on Elm Street.
 The plant — located in Inglewood at 2900 Alyth Road and a stone’s throw from the Inglewood Wildlands — manufactures grease 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But not the gunk left in the frying pan after a bacon breakfast. We’re talking industrial grease; the purple and red and blue stuff that automobiles, trains, snowmobiles and airplanes rely on to run smoothly.

 “It’s a huge commodity product,” says Mark Demong, the plant’s health, safety and environment coordinator.
 “One in two planes that you get on is being lubricated by the grease from this facility.”

The factory produces 30 different kinds of soap- and clay-based greases that amount to four-million kilograms of grease a year. To put it into perspective, that’s more than eight million standard tubes of grease. Not all grease is shipped out in tubes, however — cans, pails, kegs, drums and 1,500-kg bins are also filled with grease every day.
 So no, those generous-sized drums stacked up outside the plant aren’t leftovers from a keg party. They, too are packed with lubricant and waiting shipment across Canada and south to the United States. 

At one time or another most Inglewood residents have walked past Colonel Walker School to the end of 17th Street and wondered about the factory. What does it make? Is it safe to live in such close proximity to industry?

Safety is top of mind at the Calgary Lube and Grease Plant, says Demong. He says the biggest potential hazards aren’t pollution, explosions or would-be terrorists storming the site for solvent. The greatest threat is an oil or grease spill, which is why 18 spill stations (equipped to handle such an event) are stationed at various points both inside and outdoors. This safety-first policy is also why I was given a safety briefing, and asked to don protective clothing, before touring the facility on a recent winter evening.

Two things struck me most during the tour. First, the plant is nearly odourless (unless you stick your head inside a vat full of grease). Second, standing outside on a windless night, it’s surprisingly quiet (those squeaky Inglewood night sounds, Demong is quick to point out, come from the adjacent rail yard). Shell Canada is striving to be an unobtrusive neighbour in the community — and an environmentally-minded one as well.

The Lube and Grease Plant recycles all plastic, cardboard, drums, pails, scrap iron, fluorescent light bulbs and office paper — hardly any waste is sent off-site for disposal. It also has ISO accreditation in the areas of quality and environment. 
 What’s more, the plant — which shares a history in the community dating back to 1956 — has become an Inglewood benefactor. Plant employees have participated in the Inglewood portion of the Bow River Cleanup for the past five years. In 2006, the plant donated $7,000 to organizations in the community, and gave a $2,500 Shell Environmental Fund grant to the Garden Path Society. Most recently, the plant contributed $10,000 to support construction of new playground equipment in Nellie Breen Park.

 “We’re part of the community,” says Demong. “So if the community is stronger, we’re stronger.”

Lisa Kadane is a features writer at the Calgary Herald and has lived in Inglewood for 10 years.