Relocating Wheatley’s core? A lot riding on what more drilling reveals

Downtown Wheatley remained quiet the day after firefighters and municipal officials canvassed local residents that drilling work was expected to begin Wednesday.

They warned people living near the evacuation zone where a major explosion took place last August that they may see and hear things that are unfamiliar to them but are perfectly normal for an oil and gas drilling operation.

“They've been moving in equipment since last week,” says Chatham-Kent director of public works Ryan Brown. “Their actual start time to start operations with the drilling is kind of TBD, but it is this week.”

Brown says contractors have been performing safety checks since last week, saying it's not every day a drilling operation is drilling out an oil and gas well in a downtown area.

Downtown Wheatley, Ont. on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)

“You might see people at times wearing air respirators much like a firefighter because under their safety precautions working around dangerous gas, that's part of their safe work procedure at times. Also, because the equipment's quite loud they use a lot of their air horns on the drill rig itself to communicate with different people on site,” he says.

Brown cautions residents not to be alarmed, suggesting the big equipment including a flare stack could be loud, encouraging anyone with questions to call 311.

Brown anticipates work to take a couple weeks but admits it’s hard to predict.

“It's a really big step in the overall investigation of what happened and hopefully leading towards remediation of the problem and then eventually ending the emergency.” Brown adds. “Because this isn't a set of standard operation where you're drilling a new well, we may find something and it turns out it takes longer or it may go well and it takes less time.”

Meantime, Wheatley BIA Treasurer and local disaster relief team member Kimberley Grant tells CTV News business officials are eager for the upcoming return of the Wheatley Fish Festival, but believes planning for other town events remains dependent on what more drilling downtown.

“They have formed a committee to the rebuilding of the town,” Grant explains. “This committee will meet with Chatham-Kent about the future of Wheatley and what happens like where do we build the town? Can we be in the same area? Do we have to move it to another area?”

According to Grant, a new committee has explored a few preliminary options that involve relocating the downtown core from its current location.

Downtown Wheatley, Ont. on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)

“I know that they were looking at three other areas, but all of them need infrastructure from the ground up,” Grant adds. “We were told that depending on these wells, that nothing can be built within 100 feet of the well. So that's a lot right in that corner, obviously.”

Displaced residents like Steve Ingram whose house sits inside the evacuation zone say they’re still living day-to-day hoping for notification they can return.

“You watch some different situations on TV, obviously much worse than this in different countries and you see people devastated by becoming refugees and that's what I feel like, you know, these poor people and the residents of Wheatley. We've become refugees right now. We're just not allowed in our own homes,” he says.

Ingram hangs onto hope new drilling will be the beginning of the end of the ongoing ordeal.

“We cross our fingers each day we wake up and hope we get the phone call or notification from Chatham-Kent to say ‘today's the day’ or ‘next week you're going step in your doorway’ and then we can start planning to put our lives back together.”

'Wheatley Strong' sign in downtown Wheatley, Ont. on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)

The Wheatley Area Foodbank’s Susan Fulmer says she’s okay with the slow approach, not wanting another temporary fix.

“I think the progress is slow, but at the same time it's nice that it's going slow,” she says.

Fulmer explains donations are still being accepted at the foodbank’s temporary location on Talbot Road. Fulmer believes when more information is known and a more permanent solution is determined, people will feel more comfortable being in Wheatley.

“There's so many unknowns and lots of lots of questions and not as many answers and so we’re a pretty strong, resilient community,” she says. “We support each other. We hang in there.”