Contractors completed drilling on the monitoring well near APEC 2 in Wheatley without incident Monday and will being drilling the second monitoring well this week, municipal officials said.
Work on that well was halted for a short time Sunday when a pocket of gas was discovered.
The gas emission lasted 15 minutes, safety protocols in place were initiated and work resumed when it was safe to do so.
Officials said the emission isn’t uncommon in such drilling.
Wheatley has been victimized by hydrogen sulphide leaks since last June, culminating in an explosion in the downtown core last August.
Drilling of a second monitoring well near the Wheatley arena will be completed by the end of this week.
Residents are asked to stay behind barricades erected near the site. Anyone with questions can call 3-1-1.
Equipment for re-drilling the Tait well at APEC 2 in the municipal parking lot is expected to arrive on site this week.
Information gathered from this work, as well as sampling of regional gas wells for comparison with on-site samples, should provide more information for investigators.
Municipal officials noted that rumours regarding further demolition of buildings in the area are inaccurate.
As part of the investigation, a few severely damaged buildings were required to be removed. However, no decisions have been made with regard to the demolition of any other buildings within the evacuation zone.
