Despite Calls For Help A Gas Explosion Rocked This Ontario Town. What Went Wrong

Mr. Thiele had purchased 15 Erie St. North in 2016 and turned it into a popular local pub called The Pogue, but the business struggled during the pandemic and eventually closed. “At times there would be smells” in the building, but he thought it was just an old drain outside. The smell in early June was different. It was spicy, “like very strong, rotten eggs.” Mr. Thiele called a friend who was a contractor and they went into the basement to investigate. There they heard a soft hissing and a deep rumbling sound from beneath the building before water and slimy mud began gushing out of every nook and cranny. Both began to feel distressed by the gas and went outside to call 911. The puddles on a neighboring property were “boiling like champagne,” Mr. Thiele recalled. Listen to Whit Thiele’s June 2 Chatham-Kent 911 call about the leak. The Globe and Mail Later that day, the hazmat team from Windsor – the closest specialist fire crew trained to deal with gas leaks – retrieved gas readings from The Pogue’s door, discovering high levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), also known as sour gas. The noxious substance irritates the eyes and airways and can cause headaches, dizziness and lung filling at higher concentrations – along with a loss of smell, which can fool people into thinking the deadly and explosive threat is gone. The peak H2S measurement contained in the gas cloud that day was 134.2 parts per million by volume – well beyond the 100 ppm considered “immediately dangerous to life and health” by the National Institute for Safety and Occupational Health. The lower explosive limit (LEL) was at 100 percent, meaning the gas cloud could have exploded with a single spark. Firefighters also checked gas levels at nearby Legion and MJ’s Pizza, evacuating dozens of homes and businesses without warning. Crews stayed on scene overnight to check gas readings every half hour. The next morning, with the mystery of the gas leak still unsolved, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Cunniff declared a state of emergency in the small southwestern Ontario town of about 3,000 residents, asking the public to avoid the area because it posed a “danger that could lead to serious harm’ and ‘substantial material damage’. He and other municipal officials contacted the provincial Department of Natural Resources, asking for help in determining the source of the gas. Gas levels dropped to zero two days later. Although the source remained a mystery, on June 19, the evacuation order was lifted and displaced residents and business owners were allowed to return. But then, almost three months later, Mr Canniff’s dire warning came. On August 26 at 6:13 p.m., an explosion leveled The Pogue, destroying a neighboring building and injuring approximately 20 people. Given multiple early warning signs – another evacuation in July followed the first – it was a near-fatal disaster that could have been avoided. APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (inactive gas well) APEC 1 (inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail, Source: chatham-kent; more gold Municipal and provincial government documents and emails obtained by The Globe and Mail through freedom of information laws reveal the City of Chatham-Kent has repeatedly asked the Ontario government to step in and investigate the source of the toxic leaks. , stressing the problem was beyond their resources and expertise. But the province has been reluctant to address the issue, putting the burden on Chatham-Kent, which governs Wheatley and dozens of other mostly rural communities, and the building’s owner. The municipality was told the province’s petroleum compliance inspectors could offer “comment but not advice” because a government lawyer had advised them not to provide guidance, according to the documents. The limited action frustrated municipal officials. The fact that The Pogue exploded after two high-level gas leaks could very well come down to a failure of oversight, due diligence and a duty of care by the province, said Bill Timbers, an Alberta engineer and risk management consultant. Mr. Timbers told The Globe that the H2S concentrations found on June 2 were “absolutely unacceptable and dangerous,” even for trained hazardous chemical workers in specialized protective gear. And it would be “10 times worse for members of the public” who encountered the gas without equipment. “Why didn’t they just jump on it?” he said. “I mean the proof of the pudding, as they say, is the part that blew up. So clearly it was dangerous.” Oil in southwestern Ontario in 1862, when the province was a major early player in the North American energy industry. Abandoned wells are still common sights in this landscape. Imperial Oil Archive via CP Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with location information and accuracy greater than 50 meters are included. chen wang and john sopinski/ the globe and mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Ontario was once the heart of Canada’s oil and gas sector. North America’s first oil wells were drilled here in 1858. But many of them were never properly plugged to prevent gas from leaking. There are nearly 26,700 oil and gas wells on record, more than half of them abandoned decades ago, a Globe analysis shows. The vast majority of wells – about 23,800 – are located in the southwest of the province. About 6,000 wells have unknown status, meaning the province has no records for them or the records are incomplete. Ontario’s oversight of legacy hydrocarbon drilling is weaker than in Western Canada. Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan have stricter rules for managing and monitoring high-risk wells, particularly when potentially deadly sour gas is present. Western provinces also have millions of dollars collected from the oil and gas industry to plug orphan wells and deal with leaks and problems that may occur over the years. Experts say another Wheatley is almost certain in the area. It’s just a matter of time. And as the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the people of Wheatley continue to grapple with what happened last August and await the completion of an investigation into the source of the leaks, there are growing calls for the provincial government to do more to prevent another explosion here, and elsewhere in Ontario. June 2 – 17, 2021 “What is happening here and why today?” The disappointing response from the province began immediately after the incident in early June. Chatham-Kent Public Works Director Ryan Brown recalled a shocking few days after that spill. Inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) had arrived in town around 8 p.m. with files relating to some old gas wells in the area. It appeared that there were several wells near Erie 15 that had been drilled in 1897 and plugged in the 1960s, but there was little information to explain the sudden rise in gas levels. “Everybody scratched their heads, thinking, ‘What’s going on here and why today? What is different today than the previous 100 years?’ Mr. Brown said in an interview. Municipal fire chief Chris Case repeatedly asked for help in the potentially volatile situation from several provincial agencies — the MNRF, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Provincial Emergency Operations Center — but in each case he was told it was over. out of their scope and not their responsibility, according to an occupational health and safety report into the incident which listed Mr Case’s actions and concerns. Their refusals to take more action are also documented in e-mails between Chatham-Kent staff and the provincial government. On June 12, a compliance supervisor with the MNRF told Chatham-Kent that the municipality should continue to rely on the Ontario Petroleum Institute, an industry group, academia and other experts for support. In a June 17 call between Mr. Case and representatives of several ministries, the fire chief was told the gas leak was not the responsibility of the provincial government “unless the chief could prove the gas came from a gas well,” the professional health and the safety report states. HSE Integrated, an industrial health and safety system…

title: “Despite Calls For Help A Gas Explosion Rocked This Ontario Town. What Went Wrong Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-23” author: “Dora Dillon”

Mr. Thiele had purchased 15 Erie St. North in 2016 and turned it into a popular local pub called The Pogue, but the business struggled during the pandemic and eventually closed. “At times there would be smells” in the building, but he thought it was just an old drain outside. The smell in early June was different. It was spicy, “like very strong, rotten eggs.” Mr. Thiele called a friend who was a contractor and they went into the basement to investigate. There they heard a soft hissing and a deep rumbling sound from beneath the building before water and slimy mud began gushing out of every nook and cranny. Both began to feel distressed by the gas and went outside to call 911. The puddles on a neighboring property were “boiling like champagne,” Mr. Thiele recalled. Listen to Whit Thiele’s June 2 Chatham-Kent 911 call about the leak. The Globe and Mail Later that day, the hazmat team from Windsor – the closest specialist fire crew trained to deal with gas leaks – retrieved gas readings from The Pogue’s door, discovering high levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), also known as sour gas. The noxious substance irritates the eyes and airways and can cause headaches, dizziness and lung filling at higher concentrations – along with a loss of smell, which can fool people into thinking the deadly and explosive threat is gone. The peak H2S measurement contained in the gas cloud that day was 134.2 parts per million by volume – well beyond the 100 ppm considered “immediately dangerous to life and health” by the National Institute for Safety and Occupational Health. The lower explosive limit (LEL) was at 100 percent, meaning the gas cloud could have exploded with a single spark. Firefighters also checked gas levels at nearby Legion and MJ’s Pizza, evacuating dozens of homes and businesses without warning. Crews stayed on scene overnight to check gas readings every half hour. The next morning, with the mystery of the gas leak still unsolved, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Cunniff declared a state of emergency in the small southwestern Ontario town of about 3,000 residents, asking the public to avoid the area because it posed a “danger that could lead to serious harm’ and ‘substantial material damage’. He and other municipal officials contacted the provincial Department of Natural Resources, asking for help in determining the source of the gas. Gas levels dropped to zero two days later. Although the source remained a mystery, on June 19, the evacuation order was lifted and displaced residents and business owners were allowed to return. But then, almost three months later, Mr Canniff’s dire warning came. On August 26 at 6:13 p.m., an explosion leveled The Pogue, destroying a neighboring building and injuring approximately 20 people. Given multiple early warning signs – another evacuation in July followed the first – it was a near-fatal disaster that could have been avoided. APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (inactive gas well) APEC 1 (inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail, Source: chatham-kent; more gold Municipal and provincial government documents and emails obtained by The Globe and Mail through freedom of information laws reveal the City of Chatham-Kent has repeatedly asked the Ontario government to step in and investigate the source of the toxic leaks. , stressing the problem was beyond their resources and expertise. But the province has been reluctant to address the issue, putting the burden on Chatham-Kent, which governs Wheatley and dozens of other mostly rural communities, and the building’s owner. The municipality was told the province’s petroleum compliance inspectors could offer “comment but not advice” because a government lawyer had advised them not to provide guidance, according to the documents. The limited action frustrated municipal officials. The fact that The Pogue exploded after two high-level gas leaks could very well come down to a failure of oversight, due diligence and a duty of care by the province, said Bill Timbers, an Alberta engineer and risk management consultant. Mr. Timbers told The Globe that the H2S concentrations found on June 2 were “absolutely unacceptable and dangerous,” even for trained hazardous chemical workers in specialized protective gear. And it would be “10 times worse for members of the public” who encountered the gas without equipment. “Why didn’t they just jump on it?” he said. “I mean the proof of the pudding, as they say, is the part that blew up. So clearly it was dangerous.” Oil in southwestern Ontario in 1862, when the province was a major early player in the North American energy industry. Abandoned wells are still common sights in this landscape. Imperial Oil Archive via CP Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with location information and accuracy greater than 50 meters are included. chen wang and john sopinski/ the globe and mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Ontario was once the heart of Canada’s oil and gas sector. North America’s first oil wells were drilled here in 1858. But many of them were never properly plugged to prevent gas from leaking. There are nearly 26,700 oil and gas wells on record, more than half of them abandoned decades ago, a Globe analysis shows. The vast majority of wells – about 23,800 – are located in the southwest of the province. About 6,000 wells have unknown status, meaning the province has no records for them or the records are incomplete. Ontario’s oversight of legacy hydrocarbon drilling is weaker than in Western Canada. Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan have stricter rules for managing and monitoring high-risk wells, particularly when potentially deadly sour gas is present. Western provinces also have millions of dollars collected from the oil and gas industry to plug orphan wells and deal with leaks and problems that may occur over the years. Experts say another Wheatley is almost certain in the area. It’s just a matter of time. And as the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the people of Wheatley continue to grapple with what happened last August and await the completion of an investigation into the source of the leaks, there are growing calls for the provincial government to do more to prevent another explosion here, and elsewhere in Ontario. June 2 – 17, 2021 “What is happening here and why today?” The disappointing response from the province began immediately after the incident in early June. Chatham-Kent Public Works Director Ryan Brown recalled a shocking few days after that spill. Inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) had arrived in town around 8 p.m. with files relating to some old gas wells in the area. It appeared that there were several wells near Erie 15 that had been drilled in 1897 and plugged in the 1960s, but there was little information to explain the sudden rise in gas levels. “Everybody scratched their heads, thinking, ‘What’s going on here and why today? What is different today than the previous 100 years?’ Mr. Brown said in an interview. Municipal fire chief Chris Case repeatedly asked for help in the potentially volatile situation from several provincial agencies — the MNRF, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Provincial Emergency Operations Center — but in each case he was told it was over. out of their scope and not their responsibility, according to an occupational health and safety report into the incident which listed Mr Case’s actions and concerns. Their refusals to take more action are also documented in e-mails between Chatham-Kent staff and the provincial government. On June 12, a compliance supervisor with the MNRF told Chatham-Kent that the municipality should continue to rely on the Ontario Petroleum Institute, an industry group, academia and other experts for support. In a June 17 call between Mr. Case and representatives of several ministries, the fire chief was told the gas leak was not the responsibility of the provincial government “unless the chief could prove the gas came from a gas well,” the professional health and the safety report states. HSE Integrated, an industrial health and safety system…

title: “Despite Calls For Help A Gas Explosion Rocked This Ontario Town. What Went Wrong Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-03” author: “Eileen Baez”

Mr. Thiele had purchased 15 Erie St. North in 2016 and turned it into a popular local pub called The Pogue, but the business struggled during the pandemic and eventually closed. “At times there would be smells” in the building, but he thought it was just an old drain outside. The smell in early June was different. It was spicy, “like very strong, rotten eggs.” Mr. Thiele called a friend who was a contractor and they went into the basement to investigate. There they heard a soft hissing and a deep rumbling sound from beneath the building before water and slimy mud began gushing out of every nook and cranny. Both began to feel distressed by the gas and went outside to call 911. The puddles on a neighboring property were “boiling like champagne,” Mr. Thiele recalled. Listen to Whit Thiele’s June 2 Chatham-Kent 911 call about the leak. The Globe and Mail Later that day, the hazmat team from Windsor – the closest specialist fire crew trained to deal with gas leaks – retrieved gas readings from The Pogue’s door, discovering high levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), also known as sour gas. The noxious substance irritates the eyes and airways and can cause headaches, dizziness and lung filling at higher concentrations – along with a loss of smell, which can fool people into thinking the deadly and explosive threat is gone. The peak H2S measurement contained in the gas cloud that day was 134.2 parts per million by volume – well beyond the 100 ppm considered “immediately dangerous to life and health” by the National Institute for Safety and Occupational Health. The lower explosive limit (LEL) was at 100 percent, meaning the gas cloud could have exploded with a single spark. Firefighters also checked gas levels at nearby Legion and MJ’s Pizza, evacuating dozens of homes and businesses without warning. Crews stayed on scene overnight to check gas readings every half hour. The next morning, with the mystery of the gas leak still unsolved, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Cunniff declared a state of emergency in the small southwestern Ontario town of about 3,000 residents, asking the public to avoid the area because it posed a “danger that could lead to serious harm’ and ‘substantial material damage’. He and other municipal officials contacted the provincial Department of Natural Resources, asking for help in determining the source of the gas. Gas levels dropped to zero two days later. Although the source remained a mystery, on June 19, the evacuation order was lifted and displaced residents and business owners were allowed to return. But then, almost three months later, Mr Canniff’s dire warning came. On August 26 at 6:13 p.m., an explosion leveled The Pogue, destroying a neighboring building and injuring approximately 20 people. Given multiple early warning signs – another evacuation in July followed the first – it was a near-fatal disaster that could have been avoided. APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (inactive gas well) APEC 1 (inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail, Source: chatham-kent; more gold Municipal and provincial government documents and emails obtained by The Globe and Mail through freedom of information laws reveal the City of Chatham-Kent has repeatedly asked the Ontario government to step in and investigate the source of the toxic leaks. , stressing the problem was beyond their resources and expertise. But the province has been reluctant to address the issue, putting the burden on Chatham-Kent, which governs Wheatley and dozens of other mostly rural communities, and the building’s owner. The municipality was told the province’s petroleum compliance inspectors could offer “comment but not advice” because a government lawyer had advised them not to provide guidance, according to the documents. The limited action frustrated municipal officials. The fact that The Pogue exploded after two high-level gas leaks could very well come down to a failure of oversight, due diligence and a duty of care by the province, said Bill Timbers, an Alberta engineer and risk management consultant. Mr. Timbers told The Globe that the H2S concentrations found on June 2 were “absolutely unacceptable and dangerous,” even for trained hazardous chemical workers in specialized protective gear. And it would be “10 times worse for members of the public” who encountered the gas without equipment. “Why didn’t they just jump on it?” he said. “I mean the proof of the pudding, as they say, is the part that blew up. So clearly it was dangerous.” Oil in southwestern Ontario in 1862, when the province was a major early player in the North American energy industry. Abandoned wells are still common sights in this landscape. Imperial Oil Archive via CP Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with location information and accuracy greater than 50 meters are included. chen wang and john sopinski/ the globe and mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Ontario was once the heart of Canada’s oil and gas sector. North America’s first oil wells were drilled here in 1858. But many of them were never properly plugged to prevent gas from leaking. There are nearly 26,700 oil and gas wells on record, more than half of them abandoned decades ago, a Globe analysis shows. The vast majority of wells – about 23,800 – are located in the southwest of the province. About 6,000 wells have unknown status, meaning the province has no records for them or the records are incomplete. Ontario’s oversight of legacy hydrocarbon drilling is weaker than in Western Canada. Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan have stricter rules for managing and monitoring high-risk wells, particularly when potentially deadly sour gas is present. Western provinces also have millions of dollars collected from the oil and gas industry to plug orphan wells and deal with leaks and problems that may occur over the years. Experts say another Wheatley is almost certain in the area. It’s just a matter of time. And as the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the people of Wheatley continue to grapple with what happened last August and await the completion of an investigation into the source of the leaks, there are growing calls for the provincial government to do more to prevent another explosion here, and elsewhere in Ontario. June 2 – 17, 2021 “What is happening here and why today?” The disappointing response from the province began immediately after the incident in early June. Chatham-Kent Public Works Director Ryan Brown recalled a shocking few days after that spill. Inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) had arrived in town around 8 p.m. with files relating to some old gas wells in the area. It appeared that there were several wells near Erie 15 that had been drilled in 1897 and plugged in the 1960s, but there was little information to explain the sudden rise in gas levels. “Everybody scratched their heads, thinking, ‘What’s going on here and why today? What is different today than the previous 100 years?’ Mr. Brown said in an interview. Municipal fire chief Chris Case repeatedly asked for help in the potentially volatile situation from several provincial agencies — the MNRF, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Provincial Emergency Operations Center — but in each case he was told it was over. out of their scope and not their responsibility, according to an occupational health and safety report into the incident which listed Mr Case’s actions and concerns. Their refusals to take more action are also documented in e-mails between Chatham-Kent staff and the provincial government. On June 12, a compliance supervisor with the MNRF told Chatham-Kent that the municipality should continue to rely on the Ontario Petroleum Institute, an industry group, academia and other experts for support. In a June 17 call between Mr. Case and representatives of several ministries, the fire chief was told the gas leak was not the responsibility of the provincial government “unless the chief could prove the gas came from a gas well,” the professional health and the safety report states. HSE Integrated, an industrial health and safety system…

title: “Despite Calls For Help A Gas Explosion Rocked This Ontario Town. What Went Wrong Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-15” author: “Justin Barnes”

Mr. Thiele had purchased 15 Erie St. North in 2016 and turned it into a popular local pub called The Pogue, but the business struggled during the pandemic and eventually closed. “At times there would be smells” in the building, but he thought it was just an old drain outside. The smell in early June was different. It was spicy, “like very strong, rotten eggs.” Mr. Thiele called a friend who was a contractor and they went into the basement to investigate. There they heard a soft hissing and a deep rumbling sound from beneath the building before water and slimy mud began gushing out of every nook and cranny. Both began to feel distressed by the gas and went outside to call 911. The puddles on a neighboring property were “boiling like champagne,” Mr. Thiele recalled. Listen to Whit Thiele’s June 2 Chatham-Kent 911 call about the leak. The Globe and Mail Later that day, the hazmat team from Windsor – the closest specialist fire crew trained to deal with gas leaks – retrieved gas readings from The Pogue’s door, discovering high levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), also known as sour gas. The noxious substance irritates the eyes and airways and can cause headaches, dizziness and lung filling at higher concentrations – along with a loss of smell, which can fool people into thinking the deadly and explosive threat is gone. The peak H2S measurement contained in the gas cloud that day was 134.2 parts per million by volume – well beyond the 100 ppm considered “immediately dangerous to life and health” by the National Institute for Safety and Occupational Health. The lower explosive limit (LEL) was at 100 percent, meaning the gas cloud could have exploded with a single spark. Firefighters also checked gas levels at nearby Legion and MJ’s Pizza, evacuating dozens of homes and businesses without warning. Crews stayed on scene overnight to check gas readings every half hour. The next morning, with the mystery of the gas leak still unsolved, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Cunniff declared a state of emergency in the small southwestern Ontario town of about 3,000 residents, asking the public to avoid the area because it posed a “danger that could lead to serious harm’ and ‘substantial material damage’. He and other municipal officials contacted the provincial Department of Natural Resources, asking for help in determining the source of the gas. Gas levels dropped to zero two days later. Although the source remained a mystery, on June 19, the evacuation order was lifted and displaced residents and business owners were allowed to return. But then, almost three months later, Mr Canniff’s dire warning came. On August 26 at 6:13 p.m., an explosion leveled The Pogue, destroying a neighboring building and injuring approximately 20 people. Given multiple early warning signs – another evacuation in July followed the first – it was a near-fatal disaster that could have been avoided. APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (Inactive gas well) APEC 1 (Inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail Source: chatham-kent; more gold APEC 3 (inactive gas well) APEC 1 (inactive gas well) CHEN WANG AND JOHN SHOPINSKY/The Globe and Mail, Source: chatham-kent; more gold Municipal and provincial government documents and emails obtained by The Globe and Mail through freedom of information laws reveal the City of Chatham-Kent has repeatedly asked the Ontario government to step in and investigate the source of the toxic leaks. , stressing the problem was beyond their resources and expertise. But the province has been reluctant to address the issue, putting the burden on Chatham-Kent, which governs Wheatley and dozens of other mostly rural communities, and the building’s owner. The municipality was told the province’s petroleum compliance inspectors could offer “comment but not advice” because a government lawyer had advised them not to provide guidance, according to the documents. The limited action frustrated municipal officials. The fact that The Pogue exploded after two high-level gas leaks could very well come down to a failure of oversight, due diligence and a duty of care by the province, said Bill Timbers, an Alberta engineer and risk management consultant. Mr. Timbers told The Globe that the H2S concentrations found on June 2 were “absolutely unacceptable and dangerous,” even for trained hazardous chemical workers in specialized protective gear. And it would be “10 times worse for members of the public” who encountered the gas without equipment. “Why didn’t they just jump on it?” he said. “I mean the proof of the pudding, as they say, is the part that blew up. So clearly it was dangerous.” Oil in southwestern Ontario in 1862, when the province was a major early player in the North American energy industry. Abandoned wells are still common sights in this landscape. Imperial Oil Archive via CP Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with higher location information and accuracy 50 meters are included. Chen Wang and John Chopinsky/The Globe and Mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests Wells within 75 meters of a structure Only wells with location information and accuracy greater than 50 meters are included. chen wang and john sopinski/ the globe and mail, Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Ontario was once the heart of Canada’s oil and gas sector. North America’s first oil wells were drilled here in 1858. But many of them were never properly plugged to prevent gas from leaking. There are nearly 26,700 oil and gas wells on record, more than half of them abandoned decades ago, a Globe analysis shows. The vast majority of wells – about 23,800 – are located in the southwest of the province. About 6,000 wells have unknown status, meaning the province has no records for them or the records are incomplete. Ontario’s oversight of legacy hydrocarbon drilling is weaker than in Western Canada. Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan have stricter rules for managing and monitoring high-risk wells, particularly when potentially deadly sour gas is present. Western provinces also have millions of dollars collected from the oil and gas industry to plug orphan wells and deal with leaks and problems that may occur over the years. Experts say another Wheatley is almost certain in the area. It’s just a matter of time. And as the municipality of Chatham-Kent and the people of Wheatley continue to grapple with what happened last August and await the completion of an investigation into the source of the leaks, there are growing calls for the provincial government to do more to prevent another explosion here, and elsewhere in Ontario. June 2 – 17, 2021 “What is happening here and why today?” The disappointing response from the province began immediately after the incident in early June. Chatham-Kent Public Works Director Ryan Brown recalled a shocking few days after that spill. Inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) had arrived in town around 8 p.m. with files relating to some old gas wells in the area. It appeared that there were several wells near Erie 15 that had been drilled in 1897 and plugged in the 1960s, but there was little information to explain the sudden rise in gas levels. “Everybody scratched their heads, thinking, ‘What’s going on here and why today? What is different today than the previous 100 years?’ Mr. Brown said in an interview. Municipal fire chief Chris Case repeatedly asked for help in the potentially volatile situation from several provincial agencies — the MNRF, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Provincial Emergency Operations Center — but in each case he was told it was over. out of their scope and not their responsibility, according to an occupational health and safety report into the incident which listed Mr Case’s actions and concerns. Their refusals to take more action are also documented in e-mails between Chatham-Kent staff and the provincial government. On June 12, a compliance supervisor with the MNRF told Chatham-Kent that the municipality should continue to rely on the Ontario Petroleum Institute, an industry group, academia and other experts for support. In a June 17 call between Mr. Case and representatives of several ministries, the fire chief was told the gas leak was not the responsibility of the provincial government “unless the chief could prove the gas came from a gas well,” the professional health and the safety report states. HSE Integrated, an industrial health and safety system…