Chatham-Kent issued an update to Wheatley residents following hydrogen sulphide gas being detected by ongoing testing equipment at the site of the August 26th explosion.
They say that the release today may help investigators get closer to finding the cause of the reoccurring issue.
Site monitoring devices at 15 Erie Street North detected gas at 4am this morning. Gas continued to leak from the site until 11:30 am when the flow dropped abruptly.
Thomas Kelly, Chatham-Kent General Manager of Engineering and Infrastructure Services said in the statement that the gas release is following a pattern. Gas was first discovered June 2nd and monitoring devices detected gas again on July 19th and August 26th.
One of the theories he says is that gas pressure is building up underground to a level where it finds a path to release into the atmosphere. Once the gas releases it begins to build up pressure over time and release again. He says they ahve had incidents 47, 38 and 43 days apart.
The sample taken at the source of the leak was sent to the University of Windsor for analysis. They say the sample today is the best they have been able to obtain so far. They are confident it will provide new evidence to assist with the resolution of the problem.
Monitoring around the perimeter of the evacuation zone in the downtown hasn’t show any traces of gas it is stated.
Thomas said rumours that the use of ground penetrating radar and electromagnetic technology to map the subsurface may have played a role in releasing the gas are without merit.
