Province boosts funding to deal with Wheatley gas explosion

Two years after Wheatley was rocked by a downtown gas explosion, the province is dishing out more than $11 million in new money to help deal with the fallout in the Lake Erie community.

A blast Aug. 26, 2021, destroyed two buildings in the southwest Chatham-Kent community and caused minor injuries to 20 people. Ninety minutes earlier, officials were alerted to trouble by gas detectors and cleared the area.

The explosion – the investigation into its source continues – was the culmination of a summer of trouble and jitters in the community, located in an area of ​​Southwestern Ontario where underground natural gas and oil deposits are found.

The new provincial money builds on more than $27 million the province has already put up to help with the investigation, recovery and gas-monitoring in Chatham-Kent, as well as support for eligible businesses and residents affected by the blast.

Graydon Smith, Ontario’s natural resources minister, on hand for the provincial financial announcement Aug. 23, called the 2021 explosion “unprecedented” and said its impact remains “difficult” for residents and business owners.

Included in the latest funding from Queen’s Park:

– $8 million for direct emergency expenses, such as gas-monitoring, security and external investigations.

– $3 million to help local risk management and investigation efforts to add more safety equipment to the explosion site.

– $225,000 to help Chatham-Kent fund a committee of residents and businesses to help with community redevelopment.

Smith said the explosion site is still being monitored and has been deemed safe, but more investigation is needed.

“We continue to work collaboratively with the municipality as they continue investigations and monitoring, and manage and recover from this terrible event,” he said.

In June, the province announced a $26-million investment to manage the risks from old oil and gas wells and hazards from the movement of underground gas across Ontario.

Some of that funding will be dedicated to help municipalities, including Chatham-Kent, facing complex challenges related to the production of petroleum resources that occurred in their communities.

Ontario has records for about 27,000 oil and gas wells, mostly on private land in the province’s southwest.

The troubles in Wheatley began in June 2021, when gas was first identified at an Erie Street North site, prompting the immediate evacuation of area homes and businesses.

The following month, three dozen homes and businesses in the downtown were evacuated after hydrogen sulphide was detected again. The explosion hits the next month.

Earlier this year, the municipality said it planned to reach out to property owners in the present evacuation zone about possibly buying their properties in a move to reduce risks. More discussions are planned soon, chief administrator Michael Duben said.

He noted there are 13 properties in total.

“We’re just starting to get back some of those appraisal numbers,” Duben said. “I think we’re very close to the point now where we can start sitting down with those property owners. I would say we’re a couple of weeks away.”

He said the municipality wants to acquire the properties to potentially find the source of the gas.

The municipality is “securing the buildings on those properties, so that we can get underneath them and see if, in fact, we can identify where the gas is coming from,” Duben said.