The Grinch that caused a vessel to crack out at Dakota Gasification Co. right before Christmas didn't do anyone any favors.

A crack in one of four huge vessels containing a dangerous gasification byproduct, phenosolven, was noticed last week. The crack and subsequent leak forced plant operators to shut down the entire production of synthetic natural gas for only the second time in the plant's history.

Each day that the synthetic natural gas stream is off line costs plant owner Basin Electric Power Cooperative about $1 million at today's gas high prices.

In addition, the unexpected shutdown means some plant employees are working over the holidays to drain and clean the vessels and do other maintenance that can be done while the plant is off line.

Plant spokesman Floyd Robb said inspectors will look this week at the cracked vessel and the other three vessels, each about 50 feet long and 10 feet in diameter.

By Friday, he said plant operators should know how long repairs will take and whether work needs to be done to prevent the same thing from happening to the other three phenosolven vessels.

"It's possible it could be a quick fix, or something longer," Robb said.

The plant was designed to run on two "trains," meaning that half production could be maintained if something went wrong on one side or the other.

Since the phenosolven vessels are at the end of the two trains and are used for both production sides, the entire plant had to go down.

It's been three years since DGC staged a "black plant," for the first time in the plant's 20-year history in order to give the entire process a tune up and going over.

Start up after the black plant was delayed when one of the phenosolven vessels cracked upon being repressurized.

Floyd said the cracked vessel causing this "black Christmas" is not the same one that caused problems at that time.