Clean-up of contamination at a former gas station site in Dundas re-started last week, after a three month break.

Shell Canada has decided to complete the remediation already started at 236 King St. W. and the company's environmental contractor dug test pits on the property within the last eight days.

"We're waiting on the results of the tests, then will move forward with developing a plan for remediation. We have to know the situation underground, " said Shell Canada spokesperson John Peck.

In the meantime, Shell is also preparing more information requested by the City of Hamilton in the ongoing application process to test for contamination on city property.

Hydrocarbon contamination was discovered under the former gas station site in the spring of 2006, while Shell was clearing the site and removing underground tanks in anticipation of selling the property.

The company began remediation of the site until discovering contamination right up to the property line, bordering the Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre and neighbouring private property.

Shell decided to back out of the conditional sale to a local physiotherapy clinic, and put the clean-up on hold until completing off-site testing to see if contamination had spread onto the neighbouring properties.

Test wells were drilled on some residential properties, but Shell will not release those results.

An application for a permit to drill test wells on the city-owned community centre property has been under review for nearly a full year.

The city created and passed an environmental testing policy and permit process just in the past year. The Shell application to test in Dundas was one of the first received under the brand new process.

Shortly after the application was sent in, the staff member responsible for approval was changed. The application apparently must be reviewed by at least three staff members each time it is submitted, and has been returned to Shell with requests for more information several times.

Christine Lee-Morrison, one of the three City of Hamilton staff members who are partially responsible for ongoing reviews of the Shell application, was not available for comment this week.

Confusion over the new process has resulted in contradictions in its status among the staff members involved, leading to frustration among city staff and neighbours of the former gas station.

In June, Ms. Lee-Morrison told the Dundas Star News she had no idea how long the application review might take because it had never been done before.

She said there were several approval "phases" for the application to pass through -- each time being considered by several staff members.

Unclear

By June, Shell's application had only received approval in the first "phase," and it was unclear how many more phases it had to go through.

Each time Shell has re-submitted its permit application, the city has reviewed it then requested more information from the company.

Shell decided last month to move ahead with remediation of its own site before determining if the contamination reached the municipal property.

Neighbours and other concerned residents have discussed the situation on a Facebook page called Abandoned Shell Station at the corner of King and Matilda in Dundas, started by nearby resident Joan Krygsman.