Home 99.1 News Wheatley Public Meeting to be Held This Afternoon

Wheatley Public Meeting to be Held This Afternoon

Petroleum well found in downtown Wheatley, September 2024. Photos courtesy of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

A community open house is being held this afternoon following the discovery of a petroleum well in downtown Wheatley this past weekend.

Municipal representatives and consultants will be available at the Wheatley Village Resource Centre from 2 until 3 to discuss technical details and answer any questions.

The municipality is bringing a contracted a drilling rig to the site to investigate the potential petroleum well found, with the hope the drilling rig can begin as soon as this upcoming weekend. Officials say the contracted rig will bring a lot of noise and activity to the site, and once drilling begins, operations will take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ryan Brown, Chatham-Kent’s director of public works, says while there are no guarantees, there is hope that the drilling can potentially enter the well and control the gas and stop it from coming to the surface, which would potentially solve the hazardous gas well issue in Wheatley.