Westlock County has rescinded a 2013 motion to demolish and remediate a garage site in Vimy despite having provincial government grant money available.
Instead, following a 7-0 vote by councillors at their April 25 meeting, the municipality will now look for potential renters or purchasers.
Director of infrastructure Al Scott told council that the records showed that there was still gasoline-component contamination in the building so the soil at the site, located on the main street of Vimy, was likely contaminated as well. In October 2013 councillors passed a motion to remediate the site with available provincial dollars.
“These hydrocarbons are in excess of the upper limits established by Alberta Environment,” said Scott, noting that the building had tested negative for asbestos.
Scott told the Westlock News that the hydrocarbons that make up gasoline were on the site, but not actual gasoline itself.
The last time the soil had been tested was in 1999. At that point, no trace of gas was found, but Scott noted in his report that the groundwater flowed northward underneath the building, which meant that in the 18 years since testing was last done the groundwater could have easily picked up contamination from the building.
Coun. Ron Zadunayski pointed out that the last person to rent the site had been in the process of signing a lease/purchase agreement before she passed away.
Scott explained that he had seen the draft agreement and that the county was still responsible for the clean-up.
However, council balked at the idea of putting more money into the site without sufficient information, having already spent $91,000 of the available $170,000 provincial grant on site work.
“What we have is information from 1999, which amounts to a best-guess scenario,” said Coun. Bud Massey.
“The money to reclaim is insufficient. If we knock it down, we have an empty lot with contamination. What we really should have is accurate, up to date information to make a decision.”
Massey suggested that the county could rent the building out as-is.
“We have lots in the Town of Westlock where they have left the lots and they are waiting for it to leach out into the ground instead of spending a lot of money hauling materials in and out,” he said.
Coun. Dennis Primeau concurred.
“The problem you have with these contaminated lots is that you can’t get a definitive cost,” said Primeau. “You get in there and start digging and then you find out how much contamination you’ve got.”
“Leave it empty,” added Coun. Ray Marquette.
“It’s not costing the ratepayers anything if it’s just standing there.”
Reeve Don Savage noted that there were contaminated sites like the building in Vimy, throughout the county.
“I quite like the idea of leaving the building there and leasing it out,” he said. “Let Vimy use it for some purpose and forget about it somehow.”
In any case, Scott pointed out that the county was on the hook for the contamination clean-up one way or the other.
“Leasing out the property is fine, but that does not remove Westlock County’s responsibility to remediate the site,” he said. “That just kicks the can down the road for someone else to make that decision. It’s still a contaminated site whether we lease it or not.”
