The Ministry of Environment has issued certificates of compliance for all residential properties affected by underground contamination from a leak at a Shell site at Granville and West 41st Avenue.
The certificates confirm each site is in compliance with the applicable soil, groundwater and/or vapour standards as defined in provincial contaminated site regulations, according to Shell Canada Ltd.
Contamination was at a depth of about 17 metres (60 feet) under the ground of residential homes and was discovered when the gas station was rebuilt in 2006. The station dates back to the 1930s.
The [certificate of compliance] application process confirmed that the contamination at this depth is not harmful to human health and safety, explained Verity Conrad, a communications adviser for Shell.
An email to the Courier attributed to Peggy Evans, manager of risk assessment and remediation for the Ministry of Environment, confirmed the certificates were issued and stated: The certificates confirm there is no risk to human health or the environment and the ministry has no further concerns.
Overall, the leak affected 88 West Side properties 84 residential and four commercial. (The number is down slightly from initial reports)
The four commercial properties are in the final stages before the Ministry of Environment issues certificates of compliance, Conrad said.
Shell has spent $4 million dealing with the problem, drilling more than 200 wells in the area to investigate the extent of the leak and determine the degree of contamination.
The underground plume extended south and west of the service station but did not impact every property within the area. Unfortunately, we cant be more specific because of the property rights of individual homeowners, Conrad said.
Certainly issues of this magnitude dont happen very often so [$4 million is] a lot of money. Its significant but it was necessary to make sure that were managing the issue appropriately.
Shell plans to decommission its wells on private properties, but will leave the wells on the road intact, likely for another one-and-a-half years for monitoring.
The majority of wells were on the roadway, so the majority will not be decommissioned at this time, Conrad said.
Conrad described the wells as flush with the ground and similar to a circular sewer drain, but theyre smaller than a pie plate. Its pretty obvious when theyre doing testing because they do have to bring in a truck, she explained, pointing out equipment on the truck brought up water, vapour and soil samples for testing.
Our goal when it comes to these situations is to make sure that weve done our due diligence and weve been working closely with the ministry and the city to make sure that weve managed the situation appropriately, she added.
noconnor@vancourier.com
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