Rotten egg smell coming from old gas well on Orchard Line
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After receiving calls about a 'rotten egg' smell in the Port Burwell and Vienna areas, the Municipality of Bayham discovered the source to be an abandoned gas well emitting sulphur water that contains hydrogen sulfide gas.
"On Monday we were fielding calls for a rotten egg smell," said Municipality of Bayham Fire Chief Randy White. "People originally thought it was their sewer system – the calls came in to our wastewater department. They found it wasn't coming from the sewer system. Next they thought it was a natural gas leak, and eventually it got around to MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) and MOE (Ministry of Environment). Wednesday they sent out investigators and tracked it down to this very old, old gas well, abanoned nearly 100 years ago.
"There's actually tens of thousands of those wells across Ontario, a number of them which are in this area, and quite a number which they have no idea where they are."
The well, located in an area south of Orchard Line, north of Port Burwell, is currently being monitored by the Municipality of Bayham. The municipality, along with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Environment, Elgin-St. Thomas Public Health and Office of the Fire Marshall, and Emergency Management is determining a course of action.
"The wheels are turning to get that done," said White. "MNR has retained a contractor and that's going to be started very quickly."
The dead-end portion of Orchard Line has been closed to all traffic and the public has been warned to stay away from the immediate area of the well. The site is on private property and has been fenced off, but the lone residence has not been evacuated.
"Orchard Line, where we have it closed, there's pretty much only one residence on it," White noted. "It's a dead end as it gets toward Big Otter Creek, so there's no through traffic on the road. What we're trying to do is just keep the general public away from it, just trying to keep the area as clear as we can."
In order to access and mobilize the necessary resources the Municipality of Bayham declared a state of emergency Thursday evening.
Hydrogen sulfide is a gas which is heavier than air and in sufficient concentrations and in close proximity to the source can be potentially dangerous and deadly. However, it was noted on the municipality website (www.bayham.on.ca) there is no immediate danger to the public.
"Hydrogen sulfide, the stuff that's coming off the water coming out of the well, it is a deadly gas. The concentrations are low – and we actually had firefighters who went down and fenced the area off this morning, with gas detectors. The concentrations are reasonably low there. You have to be immediately on top of it to be in any immediate danger... but it's a precautionary measure.
"Last night, there was a media release on the website, and we also hand-delivered the notice to every occupancy in Port Burwell, Vienna and areas in between, just to let people know. The smell is going to be around for a long time, but there is no concern for evacuation."
The odour will persist until the well is properly plugged.
"When MNR does the work on the well, in order to cap it properly they have to take the leaking plug out. So for some period of time we will get some heavier concentrations. And we'll obviously have to put the precautionary measures into place at that time."
According to records, White said this particular gas well was plugged with a pine plug.
"This is similar to a process they did here about a year and a half ago. At that point in time, it was out in a field, it was August, and it took a couple of months to get it done. So this will not be a short process.
"This well is a fair ways off... they have to build a road to it, and when they can get to it, they have to bring in the proper equipment. It's better now, being frozen, to build a road and get the equipment in. In another month or two when things begin to thaw, it's going to become problematic. It's either got to be frozen solid or dried out in the summer. In the spring, things get difficult.
"The word we got from the MNR is that they're moving things along as fast as they can. This particular well has gone up pretty high on the priority list."