Investigators probing repeated gas leaks in Wheatley are hoping the latest incident will help find the source of hydrogen sulphide blamed for an explosion back in August.
Thomas Kelly, Chatham-Kent’s general manager of infrastructure and engineering, says they’ve noticed a pattern to the leaks which seem to be coming from a buildup of pressure underground, releasing roughly every 40 days, give or take a few days.
“We did some geophysical surveys, which is basically a study underground to try to look at where we may have some cavities underground, where we may have some additional lines that may act as a transporter for the gas.”
Kelly says the gas samples collected on Friday morning and sent off to the University of Windsor for analysis are some of the best they’ve been able to capture so far, which should go a long way to helping find the source of the gas.
While it may appear to be a slow process, Kelly says these things take time.
“This needs to be a very methodical, step by step process that always has safety in mind, because we are dealing with poisonous gas and explosive gas,” Kelly says. “We have a number of variables that could be the source of the gas and the problem that we have, we’re trying to eliminate them one at a time. It’s maybe not done as fast as we would like, but that’s the nature of this business.”
Once it’s safe to do so, crews will begin drilling in strategic areas, hopefully this week, to try to find underground caverns where the gas is believed to be building up.
