KAGAWONG—It is anticipated that the Billings township municipal office will again reopen in the Old Mill building in the next couple of weeks following work on the building to curb a mould problem.
“We received a very positive report after the new air scrubbing system had been installed in the building,” Billings Mayor Ian Anderson told members of council at a meeting this past Monday. He said “there has been a dramatic decrease in fungal spore count readings. The readings in this report are very low and staff will be able to return to the municipal office soon.”
Kathy McDonald, Billings clerk, told the Recorder that township office staff is making arrangements to move from the Park Centre back to their regular township municipal office in the Old Mill building by April 1.
“We will have a soil sample report to look at soon as well (carried out on the property outside of the building),” said Mayor Anderson.
The Billings Township municipal office has been closed for several weeks to allow work on the mould problem to be completed. Staff had relocated to the office in the basement of the Park Centre.
As had been reported previously, Billings had retained Tulloch Engineering last July to conduct a preliminary soil and ground water assessment of the township office property. Over the past six months staff at the municipal office had noticed from time to time a distinct petroleum hydro carbon odour.
Subsequently, air quality testing was conducted in September at the request of Billings township, as was pooled water from the office crawl space, confirming elevated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air and the presence of petroleum hydro carbons in the pooled water.
The VOC profile for the indoor air samples suggested the presence of mould.
Then in October, a further investigation of the office space and basement confirmed the presence of some water—damaged wooden sub floor materials and the visible presence of mould in some areas of the crawl space. No visible mould or water damaged building materials were found in the office space. However, a strong hydrocarbon odour was detected in the crawl space.
In late November, Tulloch Engineering recommended a number of things to help remedy the air quality including HEPA filtered air scrubbers to immediately clean the office air, and installation of exhaust fans in the crawl space to prevent the migration of mould spores and a thorough HEPA cleaning of the entire office space.
As well, crawl space repairs and removal of damaged materials were also recommended.
Tulloch Engineering also conducted testing of the soil located outside the municipal office in late October 2018. A total of nine test holes were sampled, two of these test sites confirmed the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) consistent with motor oil and/or light oil. These samples were near the location of a former fuel oil tank.
Further testing of the soil and ground water has been recommended by Tulloch Engineering to determine the extent of the PHC contamination.
A Phase II Environmental Site Assessment to determine the extent of PHC impacts to the soil and groundwater was recommended.
At a December 4, 2018 meeting, council authorized township CAO/clerk Kathy McDonald to coordinate the installation of air scrubbers in the building at 15 Old Mill Road for the purpose of air quality mitigation, and directed her to develop a report on options for mould remediation for council’s consideration.
And on December 17, council passed a further resolution authorizing the CAO/clerk to co-ordinate a Phase II ESA by Tulloch Engineering in the amount of $20,500 and any office remedial construction be put on hold until the results of the Phase II assessment are known.
Mayor Anderson noted, “we still need to make some decisions on remedial steps we are going to need to take. But at least there will be a safe, healthy work environment for the office staff to return into the (Old Mill) building to work in.”
