It’s been just over six months since the first gas leak was detected in downtown Wheatley, and the search continues for the source of hydrogen sulphide.
A pair of concrete slabs, including what used to be the basement of the Pogue at 15 Erie Street North, will need to be removed in the next week or so.
“There’s been events over the past 10 days or go where there was a gas emission and it seemed to be coming from underneath those two slabs,” Chatham-Kent CAO Don Shropshire says. “We can’t say that for certain, they’re going to have to do the investigation, but the gas was not being emitted from the well where we thought the probably cause would be.”
Entegrus crews are preparing to remove hydro poles ahead of demolition around the scene of the explosion.
“There’s going to be more heavy equipment coming in, we need to demolish a couple of buildings immediately adjacent to the site,” Shropshire explains. “There’s MJ Pizza, there’s some pieces of the building that are overhanging where the Pogue used to, that will have to come down to make it safer for them to do some investigative work.”
Shropshire says heavy equipment will be brought in next week to begin digging, however that will be dependent on final approval of safety protocols.
Meantime, the municipality estimates 40% of authorized residential and business properties in the evacuation zone have now been accessed by owners and tenants. That’s 30 of the 76 affected properties.
