Roadway and a portion of parking lots on a commercial strip along S. Railway Street will be closed for up to a month starting Thursday as CP Rail works to remediate an abandoned gas well beneath the parking lot of Pattison Funeral Home (pictured at bottom).--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Canadian Pacific Railway is tackling an abandoned gas well leaking methane near S. Railway Street, but nearby business owners are not particularly happy about losing parking, or how the project is being explained to them.
In June, the News was first to report that the railway was disputing ownership of an abandoned well in the area. An appeal hearing to determine ultimate liability for future costs will be held in November.
On Thursday, the City of Medicine Hat announced that a work plan for the site, located in a parking lot on a long commercial strip, would require through traffic to be halted in front of businesses and reduced parking for up to a month starting Thursday.
Work plans obtained by the News show the well in question is one referred to recently in a decision made by the Alberta Energy Regulator, which names CP Rail as ultimately responsible for mitigation efforts.
The well, licensed as No. X0000225, was being observed by the City of Medicine Hat’s gas division as a matter of standard practice with all abandoned wells within city limits. CP Rail appealed that recent liability determination and the matter is set to be subject of an AER appeal hearing in November with the city, Cenovus and Ovintiv (formerly known as Encana), as interested parties.
Those two latter firms were partly created from CanPac Oil and Gas, which managed CP Rail’s energy interests until 2000.
All parties have told the News they won’t comment on the issue until the legal matter is settled.
Meanwhile, the work plan appears to suffer from a particular jurisdictional problem that municipalities often complain about.
As a federally regulated industry, railroads rarely need local government to approve or even help co-ordinate projects.
Gregg Martin of Pattison Funeral Home says he was surprised late last week when informed work would proceed in the lot of his business. He says he has long known about the presence of a well in the commercial strip, but now doesn’t know the need for new work or even who is responsible.
“We’ve been assured that our parking access from the north end won’t be obstructed, but until the fences go up, who really knows,” said Martin.
He said discussions now allow for limousines and others attending the funeral home to reach him via a small turnaround that also leads to the Medicine Hat Food Bank and Fountain Tire.
Officials with several companies at the south end of the long commercial strip also say they have parking concerns, stating they would likely have access to their lots, but greatly reduced parking space.
On Friday, the city announced work will require a buffer in the interest of safety, therefore it would not allow through traffic on S. Railway between Hill Road and Fifth Street, though some local access may be allowed.
The detour for cross-town traffic will be over the Southeast Hill, along Fifth Avenue, to Seventh Street, which joins Hill Road. The city also suggests north-south drivers plan to use Maple Avenue.
