Wheatley experts enter final stage of investigation

WHEATLEY – At a virtual meeting held on YouTube and Facebook Live Saturday, February 5, municipal and provincial officials said the investigation is in its final stages and mitigation of the issue in Wheatley could begin in about eight weeks time.

Mayor Darrin Canniff, Thomas Kelly, CAO Don Shropshire, April Rietdyk and Fire Chief Chris Case represented Chatham-Kent, while Jennifer Barton and Helen Collins represented the province at the meeting. Sean Mc- Farland of Golder Associates was also on hand to answer questions.

“We want families and businesses to know that we have their backs,” said Mayor Canniff in his opening statement. “Working together, we’ll get through this.”

Barton, who is the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, spoke briefly about the work currently being done in Wheatley and indicated that a large amount of work has been carried out since the November 3 meeting with residents.

She said they are confident they now understand how the gas entered the basement of the former Pogue restaurant.

APEC 3 is one of three wells being targeted by the investigation. Expert crews continue to work on pinpointing the source of the Hydrogen Sulphide gas that caused the explosion on August 26.

Photo courtesy of Chatham-Kent

They are currently concentrating on two wells in the immediate vicinity and expect the investigation to wrap up over the next eight weeks.

An additional six weeks is expected to fix or mitigate the issue.

“You have our commitment that we will get to this solution as soon as possible and have folks get back into their homes and businesses,” she said.

Helen Collins, who represents the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, answered questions regarding the Wheatley Residents Assistance Program, which has come under fire recently for not meeting the needs of those evacuated.

She pointed out that every householdthat applied received a $3,000 lump sum payment plus an additional $1,500 for each member of that household.

“The largest household got as much as $15,000,” she said.

The other phase of funding is extra assistance for those not covered by insurance and she indicated that anyone who received insurance money would have that money deducted from any funds in this program.

“Disaster assistance programs across Canada are all set up this way,” she said.

Collins did indicate that they understand there may be some exceptions and that the program is scheduled to wrap up on March 31, so they are actively looking at that.

When asked if there is a timeline for people to return to their homes, Ms. Barton indicated that outside of the 14-week estimate, they have no set timeline, as the investigation changes daily.

Thomas Kelly, Chatham-Kent’s Manager of Infrastructure and Engineering Services, announced that 110 propertieshave been assessed and visited by homeowners to date, withabout eight homes remaining.

“We expect to have only three remaining after this weekend,” he said, referring to this past weekend.

Kelly did say that anyone requiring a second visit to their home should call 3-1-1 and let them know.

“We will do our best to accommodate you when it is safe to do so.”

Kelly admitted there were several homes that did not get winterized prior to the temperatures dropping drastically before Christmas.

Sean McFarland, who is leading the investigative team for Golder Associates, outlined a more detailed plan than any of the residents had heard to date.

He explained the wells, how they got to be where they are, and what the steps were to make sure this disaster doesn’t re-occur.

“We don’t want a bandaid, “ he said. “We want a safe and lasting solution.”

McFarland outlined the amount of experts on site — naming some of them — and explained their expertise in the gas and oil industry and how they’ve come to the conclusions that they have.

Still, he said, some questions remain.

“Is one well the main source and feeding the others?” he asked. “Or are they all emitting gas individually?”

He said they are very close to determining this, and once they have that information the work will begin to fix the issue.

Mayor Canniff announced that they will be holding another in-person meeting with residents in the very near future.