Wheatley residents can expect to see increased activity at the emergency site in the near future, as an updated scrubber unit is installed with new gas monitoring equipment.
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In a media release Friday afternoon, Chatham-Kent officials said the unit will provide continued safety for residents of Wheatley, which saw its downtown core rocked by an explosion in August, 2021.
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The new equipment “will also allow the entirety of the equipment to be located on the former municipal parking lot,” the release stated. “Once installed and tested next week, this will allow the existing water gas separator and scrubber equipment to be removed in the coming weeks.”
Members of the public are reminded to call 911 immediately if they smell gas.
A blast Aug. 26, 2021 destroyed two buildings in the southwest Chatham-Kent community and caused injuries to 20 people. Ninety minutes earlier, officials were alerted to trouble by gas detectors and cleared the area.
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The issue 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.
In Friday’s release, officials noted that further investigative work remains ongoing.
“Contractors will be onsite conducting a follow-up gas migration survey to compare results that have been taken at different points of time over the last two years,” they said.
In August, the Ontario government announced more than $11 million in new money for Chatham-Kent to help deal with the fallout from the explosion.
In June, the province also made a $26-million investment to manage the risks from old oil and gas wells and hazards from the movement of underground gas across Ontario.
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