E.K. was once home to an oil refinery

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This article was published 04/12/2020 (906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many people today may not be aware that there once was an oil refinery in the heart of East Kildonan. Located along the south side of Munroe Avenue from Golspie to Raleigh streets, the property today is owned by Jeld-Wen.

 It was run by the Radio Oil Company (ROCO) and was their only oil refinery. At its peak in the late 1960s, ROCO had 32 gasoline stations in the Greater Winnipeg area and 38 stations in Manitoba, owned by the Hechter family of Winnipeg. By today’s standards it was a small refinery at its peak capacity, producing 2,000 barrels of oil per day. Crude oil was brought to the refinery from the United States by truck and the refined products were also taken out by truck.

 Construction of the refinery began in 1920 and it opened the following. It was the first oil refinery in Manitoba and operated with just over 100 employees at its peak. In 1949, the Hechter family wanted to expand the refinery by closing Munroe Avenue and expanding to the north side of Munroe Avenue but over 1,000 residents of East Kildonan signed a petition against expansion and the East Kildonan Municipal Council turned down the proposal. As a result, the refinery was shut down by the late 1950s and became a storage facility for oil and gasoline products, as a well as a boat manufacturing facility.

 It suffered four serious fires from the 1930s to the 1960s which threatened the area around the refinery and required the combined efforts of the East Kildonan and Winnipeg fire departments to extinguish. In the days before the sewer was built along Munroe Avenue in the late 1950s, an open ditch ran alongside the plant, into which the various oil products often leaked, creating a situation where stray cigarette butts or matches often started small fires.

In the 1960s, a lack of maintenance meant local residents became increasingly concerned about the safety of having an oil storage facility in the community. 

By the early 1970s, the storage facility was shut down but nothing was done to clean up the site and remove the derelict equipment until 1979. ROCO was sold to Husky Oil in 1978.

Jim Smith is a community correspondent for Elmwood, East Kildonan and North Kildonan. Email him at jimsmith@mts.net 

Jim Smith

Jim Smith is a community correspondent for Elmwood, East Kildonan and North Kildonan. Email him at jimsmith@mts.net

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