Shell Canada plans another round of drilling and testing in the coming months to determine the extent of contamination caused by a leak at the Shell gas station at Granville and West 41st Avenue.
Contamination was discovered when the station was rebuilt in 2006, as the Courier reported online Monday.
Testing since then revealed 78 neighbouring properties have been affected72 residential and six commercial ones.
Shell spokesman Jeff Gabert said much of the contamination is 60 feet below ground.
Some of the property owners were notified because environmental standards were tightened Feb. 1. Prior to that date, the requirement was an ability to support aquatic life, which has been stiffened to drinking water standards.
Weve got another round of testing to do yet, another round of drilling in the next few months. Once thats completed well have a really good idea [of the scope of the problem]. We do believe that were very, very close to the end of delineation, but until you get that data in your hand and do your due diligence, you can never be sure, Gabert said. Every time you drill your multiple holes, you find out that there are some holes that have readings that are above the guidelines and when you see these holes, you just go a little bit further the next time and hopefully you find holes that are below the guidelines and thats when you know youre at the leading edge. Well be looking at between another four and eight holes in the coming months. Im not going to get into the exact areas.
Gabert said contamination goes in a particular direction, but wouldnt specify the exact direction, citing property owner privacy concerns.
A remediation plan wont be put together until the extent of contamination is determined, and Gabert maintains there are no health or safety concerns given the depth at which the problem has been found. Property owners, however, must disclose such information when selling their property.
We have done sales in the community over the last couple of years where we had worked with realtors and residents who were selling, and the purchasers, to have them understand the fact that contamination is quite deepthat were dealing with the safety situation and [working with] the [Ministry of Environment] towards resolution by getting a certificate of compliance, which is what you do in these situations, Gabert said.
About 50 people showed up at private meeting Shell held at the Arbutus Club Monday evening. Gabert said many in attendance were newly notified property owners.
Gabert did not reveal specific contamination readings to the Courier, but noted there are different readings for different areas of the neighbourhood.
When youre getting into the leading edge where we are right now, youre not getting that much far above the standard, he said.
When asked if Shell is concerned about lawsuits, Gabert said, Whenever you get in a situation, you have to do your best to continue to communicate with people and when that happens you can often see good outcomes. As long as you can be open and honest with people and keep them up to date, you should be able to have a satisfactory resolution for for the homeowners and the Ministry of Environment and all the other stakeholds that are involved, including the city and the Vancouver health authority, which has also been informed of our ongoing process.
David McLellan, general manager of community services for the City of Vancouver, said hes satisfied with communication between the city and Shell to date.
Were a property owner thats affected. Its in our streets even though its quite deep. Any time that you have a contamination issue with the streets were concerned because it can affect how we do our work there and what sort of other impacts we may have because of that, he said. The contamination had been explained to us. We think thats a very low risk area because, you know, if its going that deepno one in that area is relying on wells, for example, for water or anything like that. Theyre all on city water systems and the like and nobodys been doing any excavation at that kind of depth so we cant see that theres any immediate health issues here.
The Ministry of Environment did not return calls from the Courier before press deadline.
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