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WOODS CROSS — Residents seeking answers for an incident at a refinery on May 15 attended a heated City Council meeting Tuesday.
The incident occurred when a tank at Silver Eagle Refining had an "overpressure" that sent vapors and chemicals into the air, causing the principal of a nearby school to send students home early.
"If you choose to store compounds likes that, you better darn well know what is going on," resident Maren Hilbig said.
Woods Cross residents at the meeting voiced their concern that they are being lied to by Silver Eagle Refining. Their biggest issue is what was released into the air when the company had a problem last week.
"I have a son who is sick, and I have a daughter who still has itchy eyes and has been lethargic," West Bountiful resident Heather Gardner said.
Tuesday night, Silver Eagle Refining general manager Jerry Lockie admitted communications during the incident could have been better.
"The city knows we have a situation we didn't like,” he said. “We take it very, very seriously, and we're all about trying to fix it."
After questioning, he also admitted there were a couple of fires in this incident — something residents say they were never told.
"I do feel like I’ve been lied to since Thursday," Gardner said.
Now, residents want to know what exactly was burning and released into the air.
"I don't care that it was three to five minutes,” Gardner said. “It was a fire and it was a volatile material that was in that tank."
Lockie responded that it was a waxy substance in that tank, 90 percent of which is the stuff you'd find in candles and crayons.
The other 10 percent, he said, he would have to get back to residents on.
