When 24 barrels containing various substances were dumped at a Woolwich Township sugar bush, John Weber and Michelle Shannon ran through their options.
Police referred them elsewhere.
Their insurance company offered them $5,000 – but estimates pegged the cost of cleanup at roughly double that.
Three levels of government – township, regional and provincial – said they sympathized with the couple’s situation, but couldn’t do anything to help them because the barrels were left on private property.
Late Monday afternoon – not long after police returned to the site – another choice made itself available.
Through Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris, the couple became connected with Breslau-based Safety-Kleen.
“They said they would be very happy to come and remove the drums … free of cost,” Shannon told CTV News.
Every drum has to be tested before Safety-Kleen crews can come in to remove the barrels.
Shannon estimates that work could start by Wednesday – which would put it at one week since her and Weber’s son discovered the hazard while walking his dog.
Some of the barrels emit strong odours. Many are marked with words like “grease” and “oily water.”
According to an environmental expert who visited the site Monday, some of them do indeed contain those substances.
Others likely hold sludge, grease and paint, Daniel Hoshowsky of Provincial Environmental Services said.
“Most of them are quite full,” Weber said.
“Hopefully they find out who did it, so it doesn’t happen again.”
Weber and Shannon will still have to pay to excavate and remediate the soil around the barrels, Shannon said.
