Wheatley evacuation zone reduced

By Mark Ribble

WHEATLEY — At a virtual community meeting on Saturday, April 9, Chatham-Kent and provincial officials announced a drastic reduction in the size of the evacuation zone in downtown Wheatley.

Citing studies and work that has been done up until now in the process, officials felt is was time to allow many of the evacuated home and business owners back into their properties.

The meeting first gave an update of the work that is ongoing and work that has been done up until now.

Currently, the team is in the process of plugging the former Tait well, which has been the focus of most of the investigation.

Back in the fall, engineers and investigators had identified three areas of concern which they named APEC 1, 2 and 3.

Monitoring wells have been installed and gas probes have been inserted to help with the investigation of APEC 1 and APEC 3.

“The team has recommended plugging the Tait well,” said Jennifer Barton from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. “That is taking place currently.”

Barton said that the ongoing mitigation work is being done alongside any remaining investigative work and she expects the timeline of mid-to-late May to be achievable.

“We talked about a mid-to-late May timeline back in the fall, and we expect mitigation work to be done within that timeline,” she added.

Sean Mc- Farland from Golder Associates gave a further update on the currentwork being done.

“We brought an old casing from the Tait well to the surface,” he said. “We’re now below the top of the bedrock in our drilling.”

Once at the bottom, they plan on running some geophysical surveys and then the plan is to seal it up.

McFarland called the process the ‘stacked vertical plugging method’, which means they will pour cement into the hole from the bottom up in sections, let it set and then go back later and pour another section.

“We’ll repeat that step until it’s fully plugged,” he said.

It was the time for Chatham-Kent Fire Chief Chris Case to announce that changes were coming to the evacuation zone — something that local residents have been wanting for months.

Aecon employees work at the corner of Victoria and Talbot streets in Wheatley on Monday, April 11.

SUN photo by Greg Coulter

“There is a lot of activity on site,” he said. “At every point we’ve asked, how does this affect the evacuation zone?”

He then introduced Theresa Watson, an Alberta-based oil and gas drilling expert, who made the announcement of the reduced evacuation zone.

An overhead image of Wheatley with the original evacuation zone (red) marked, along with the new evacuation zone (green). The pink shaded areas will have limited access within the new evacuation zone. The blue shaded area is the work zone where mitigation work is being done.

“Outside of a distance of 50 metres from an emission site, evacuation is no longer required,” she said.

Watson said that monitor wells were installed in February to relieve pressure from other sites.

“We are now confident the evacuation zone can be reduced,” she said.

With that, it was announced that as of today (Wednesday, April 13), fences that have cordoned off numerous homes in the outlying areas of downtown would be moved in to only encompass those homes and business within the 50-metre distance.

Officials said it should take about 10 hours to move all the fencing, and as the fences are moved, residents would be allowed access to their homes.

However, according to Chatham-Kent Director of Public Works, Ryan Brown, each door would be posted with a ‘non-inhabitable’ notice until such time that utilities workers and contractors can deem the homes and buildings safe to living in.

Representatives from Entegrus (electricity and water) and Enbridge (gas) were on hand to give instruction to residents who are able to return.

Residents and businesses are required to work with electrical and HVAC contractors to inspect their appliances and services before contacting the municipality for a final inspection.

They will then be allowed to move back in.

This comes as a welcome surprise and announcement to people like Reija and Joe Gruber, who have long been trying to get back into the home they purchased three weeks before the August 26 explosion.

JOE AND REIJA GRUBER

“We’re happy to actually get to start our lives now,” said Reija on Monday. “This process has been extremely difficult for us to deal with but now we can finally — hopefully — get on with our lives and make our first house our home.”

The Sun also reached out to Helen Featherstone. She and her husband Gary have also been displaced since last August. Helen summed it up in few words.

“We are happy to be going home,” concluded Helen.

GARY AND HELEN FEATHERSTONE