Mayor Gerry Thiessen will be meeting with representatives from Imperial Oil at the end of the month to discuss solutions for a number of brownfield sites in town.
A brownfield site, in relation to the petroleum products industry, is an unused or abandoned site, for example an old gas station, of which expansion and redevelopment is prohibited as a result of real or perceived environmental contamination. There are a number of these abandoned gas station sites in down town Vanderhoof, and the ones of main concern to Mayor Gerry Thiessen are owned by Imperial Oil.
“What frustrates me is as you drive through downtown Vanderhoof on the highway, there are a number of these sites that used to be old gas stations and old bulk petroleum stations,” said Thiessen.
“Those companies made good financial living off of us as a community - not for them to just abandon those sites and leave us with the mess,” he said.
The meeting will be the first step in a process which Thiessen hopes will see some of the brownfields cleaned up.
“Brownfield sites are something we have probably got more feedback from our community about, than most any other program.
“It’s a desire in our community just to make it a better place to live,” said Thiessen. “Imperial Oil seem very serious about working with us and I’m very pleased with the way everything is going,” he added..