The original plan by John Schneider was for a quick operation that would pave the way for future prosperity for his business.
And while good fortune is still very much in the cards for John Schneider, owner of Innisfail 2020 Auto Service, the task of cleaning up the front of his business at 5004 49 St. has been greater than he ever imagined.
Originally it was thought that digging a huge hole in front would yield only one old underground gas tank but excavators soon realized otherwise shortly after they began the operation at the end of August.
“It became four tanks,” he said. And then three of the discovered 500-gallon underground tanks still contained fuel – and more problems.
“The contamination was much worse than what we had anticipated,” said Schneider.
He said subsequent readings were taken on hydrocarbon levels with a sensor on leftover ancient fuel and sent off to a lab. The readings were higher than they ever imagined they could be.
“When they were doing it, it was like, ‘Wow, this is bad'. You could see all the tanks had been leaking,” said Schneider. “It was bad to the point where it would almost burn your eyes. It was like putting your face in a jerry can. It was terrible.”
The surprises did not end with the discovery of the extra tanks and high contamination levels. Excavators also found a water well and remnants of an old farmhouse.
“When we were digging up there was a bunch of bricks and wood. It looks like there was an old farmhouse there. It was like a brick foundation,” said Schneider, adding he and workers had suspected beforehand there could be a water well. “We had wondered where it would be at. But where you just don't know.
“From what they could tell it was probably from the '30s, maybe even earlier than that,” he added. “When they actually uncovered it there was actually water coming out of it.”
Schneider, who apprenticed under former owner Dave Muddle until buying the business in 2007, has been patiently waiting for the cleanup job to be done so he can finally move forward with his business on the three-lot site.
Muddle bought the property with his late wife Mary in 1990. The land was reportedly once the site for a pioneer livery, an auto dealership and a used car lot.
He knew at the time it was once a site for old gas tanks, possibly as far back as the 1940s, but did not know it was a problem until the mid-1990s when the provincial government let it be known it wanted all sites that are potentially contaminated from old gas tanks cleaned up.
Alberta Environment created a cost-sharing cleanup program for such sites as the one once owned by Muddle. However, it took 10 years for Muddle to qualify and the work to clean up the site finally began almost a month ago.
The cleanup of the site, which was expected to take two weeks, would enable Muddle to finally sell the land and building, and then allow Schneider to make necessary improvements to his business to move forward.
But now Schneider may have to wait a total of six weeks – and it has hurt his business.
“It has been horrible. We have just a quarter of the car count as far as invoicing and what would normally be coming in,” said Schneider, emphasizing that his shop is still very much open despite it looking like a construction zone.
“We are absolutely open for business,” he said. “There is really no effect on the customers at all. We have access to all of our bays through the back of our building. A lot of people don't know that.”
