Still no wells found at Hitch’n Post

By Gillian Slade on December 13, 2018.

The Orphan Well Association has been unable to locate historical gas wells on the site of the old Hitch'n Post Saloon on S. Railway Street.--NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE

gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade

No gas wells have been located at that Hitch’n Post Saloon site in spite of considerable efforts, says the Orphan Well Association.

The OWA hoped to locate and identify an historical well and relief well at, 210 S. Railway St. SE, after the demolition of the Hitch’n Post Saloon building.

“We used various techniques to identify the wells including ground-penetrating radar, pin finder metal detecting and excavating below the basement. Every effort was made to safely locate the wells, but ultimately we were unable to do so,” said OWA executive director Lars De Pauw.

Maintaining structural stability of adjacent buildings was a priority during the process and this restricted how deep they could go and how close they could work to the other buildings, said De Pauw.

The historical well is still leaking small amounts of methane, but this does not present a risk to public safety, and it was never the intent to re-enter the well, said De Pauw.

“It wasn’t critical for us to find it, it just made the installation of our gas system easier if we knew exactly where it was,” said de Pauw. “We can also do it based on the sampling that we do.”

After the cavity, where the building was located, had been filled in with soil and compacted, small holes were drilled in the soil at various locations and readings taken of the gas, said de Pauw. A vacuum system was then installed with pipes in those holes with the highest readings to manage the gas with a Soil Gas Management System. Soil gas sampling will be used to optimize the system’s gas extraction capabilities.

Other work is still taking place on site and is expected to continue to mid-January.

The installation of the buttresses and filling in the basement is mostly complete and requirements are being finalized to cap spaces between the foundations of the adjacent buildings, said Dave Curtis, property administrator land and business support for the city. Some repair work will also be necessary on the walls of the adjacent buildings.

Future use of this site will depend on what utility rights of way will be required around the abandoned gas wells on site.

The City of Medicine Hat and the OWA formed an agreement about a year ago on this project in the interests of public health and safety.

The city and OWA split the associated costs equally, the city paying about $460,000.