Oil leak complicates demolition of old Prince Edward Home

The demolition of the old Prince Edward Home in Charlottetown has been complicated by the discovery of an oil leak, found by provincial officials back in July.

Crews working at the former nursing home noticed the leak when they found two oil tanks underneath the property.

One of those tanks was partially filled with oil, officials said, but are unsure for how long.

"Anybody that's familiar with oil spills, you have to keep kind of digging until your consultant doesn't find any oil anymore. So we're trying to remediate that, which has turned into a big project," said P.E.I.'s Minister of Infrastructure Steven Myers.

Unsure how much oilspilled

The province said the tanks were found under a portion of the building that was built in the 1930sandweren't registered.

At this point, the province saidit doesn't know how much oil spilled into the ground. Environment officials are also involved now and are overseeing removal of the soil.

No one knew they were there, they were buried underground and no one even knows for how long they were there. Steven Myers, minister of infrastructure

Barry Jackson, theenvironmental and regulatory co-ordinator with the Department ofEnvironment, said a consultant was hired todosoil testing and installsome monitoring wells to determine the impact from the spill.

"There's been approximately 3,000 or so tonnes of soil removed from the site," he said.

"Soit was a fairly large excavation but the oil itself was, it was easy to find in the soil."

Jackson said there wasno indication that anygroundwater was effected, but that will be part of the assessment done by the consultant.

He said the oil found is a type of fuel oil, which is thick andheavy.

"That in itself did make the excavation and the removal of soil from the site a fairly straightforward process," he said.

Jackson said the oil was moving toward Victoria Park, but the consultant will confirm whether more excavation needs to occur.

"The oil tanks were old. No one knew they were there, they were buried underground and no one even knows for how long they were there," Myers said.

"So they weren't identified on the plan as part of the demolition and whenever they were found, kind of everything stopped in that area and we had to address that immediately."

Once the demolition is complete, theprovince plans to use the land as green space, he said.

The leak will put the$2.3 million project over budget,but the province doesn't know by how much, Myers said.

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