More than 18 months after a gas explosion destroyed part of downtown Wheatley, the municipality is no closer to discovering the source of the gas release, leaving many local residents angry and frustrated.
During a public meeting held at the Talbot Trail Golf Course on Wednesday, provincial and municipal representatives along with experts from consulting firms WSP Golder and TL Watson presented findings of an investigation into the source of the methane hydrogen sulphide gas that caused the explosion on August 26, 2021.
The municipality said three wells at areas of potential environmental concern around the site of the explosion have been plugged and capped over the last several months. However, the results of a geochemical gas analysis suggest that they were not the source of the gas release.
According to Theresa Watson with TL Watson, if another well is not located nearby and found to be the source of the release, it will impossible to stem the flow of gas to the downtown core. In that case, gas monitoring and management would need to remain in place permanently.
Both consulting groups noted that there could be other undocumented gas and water wells in and outside of Wheatley, which could have contributed to the gas release.
TL Watson has recommended demolishing the Sexy Nails and The Car Barn restaurant on Talbot Street East to allow for excavation of the site to determine the existence of any additional wells.
When given the chance to ask questions during the meeting, several Wheatley residents voiced their displeasure over the length of the ongoing investigation into the gas release. Many who have been impacted by the explosion detailed ongoing battles with insurance companies and the loss of their livelihoods.
Chatham-Kent CAO Michael Duben acknowledged the struggle many Wheatley residents have faced since the explosion and said the municipality is doing everything in its power to “make this community as safe as possible.”
“All this stuff you’re hearing about today is about mitigation. It’s to make sure that it doesn’t happen again in this community,” Duben said during the public meeting. “I can’t sit here and say that Wheatley is absolutely safe. We’re doing a lot of work to make it even safer and I’d suggest we’re even safer than other communities because we understand what the risk is.”
Moving forward with remediation, both consulting firms have recommended prohibiting any drilling or pumping of new wells by the public and restricting any future construction of structures over existing wells.
As an additional safety measure, all residents in the Wheatley community were encouraged to install LEL detectors, which detect combustible gas.
In the meantime, the municipality said it will continue to support further testing, which will establish the venting rate and concentrations of any gases.
Recently, Chatham-Kent also floated the proposal of purchasing the 11 properties that remain within the Wheatley evacuation zone. During the public meeting, the municipality said discussions with property owners remain ongoing.
Several safety measures remain in place in downtown Wheatley, including air monitors, a scrubber system designed to trap gas emissions, and a flare stack which also detects any emissions.
“We have the gas controlled,” said Watson. “This has made the site safe to work on without any type of extra breathing protection or anything like that. The only reason it is still in an evacuation zone is because work is still ongoing and we can’t yet allow people to have full control of their properties.”