Free tours of Westshore Terminals attracted more than 500 people over seven weekends throughout the summer.
The tours were advertised in the local newspapers and the 512 people who took part were mostly residents of the area, said Westshore vice president and general manager Denis Horgan.
"We are a busy terminal and have been running flat out all summer, right when we were showing our community guests around the site," said Horgan. "Even at that hectic pace the overwhelming response of our tour visitors was positive, both to coal and the way we ship it."
Student tour guides showed a corporate video on Westshore operations before each tour and then drove the visitors around the 54-hectare (133-acre) site in a van with up to 10 passengers at a time, providing them with running commentary.
"From the feedback our tour guides were given, people were particularly impressed with our new $8.5 million dust suppression system and the $5.5 million water processing plant we installed this past summer," said Horgan.
Visitors also learned about MAMU, Westshore's Mobile Air Monitoring Units, which are available to check air quality for dusting in surrounding neighbourhoods.
"I doubt there's ever been a time when Westshore has been more proactive toward our environmental responsibilities ... and we felt we were doing a good job before," said David Crook, Westshore's manager of engineering and environmental services.
Crook introduced one of the two MAMUs to the public at the Tsawwassen Sun Festival in August and said the response has been encouraging.
"Locals are interested in our air quality studies and have suggested various locations where we should set up," he said. "The first location chosen was The Village off English Bluff Road where MAMU is still recording data.
"We are doing this because coal gets blamed for most airborne particulate issues," said Crook. "Past studies have shown that coal is either not in the dust samples at all, or only makes up a very small part."
Meanwhile, Westshore will launch a $230 million equipment replacement program in 2014, which will see three aging stackerreclaimers and a shiploader replaced in a four-year project.
The Terminal Infrastructure Reinvestment Project - the largest ever undertaken by Westshore - will also see the original office and workshop buildings in the centre of the site replaced by a new office/workshop complex on the northern edge.
Work on clearing the site for the project is underway and the busiest time is expected to be in 2015.
