Whitehorse woman says city should take responsibility for contaminated lot it sold
Lynda Erlich discovered the contamination after construction on her new home had begun
A Whitehorse woman says the city is shirking its responsibility by refusing to deal with a contaminated lot she purchased.
The lot at 5 Carpiquet Rd in Takhini North was originally owned by the federal government as part of its military housing known as Camp Takhini. It was transferred to the territorial government, which eventually turned it over to the city for a new subdivision of 12 lots.
Lynda Ehrlich said she tried to get one of the new subdivided lots 10 years ago, but was unsuccessful.
When one of them came up for sale two years ago, she decided to buy it and paid its market value of $205,000.
Since then, she says she spent thousands more because shortly after construction started on her new home last year, workers noticed the smell of petroleum and the work stopped.
Testing revealed the soil was contaminated.
Ehrlich, who said two previous private owners never built on it, said she blames the city for selling the lot to an unsuspecting buyer.
"I mean, there's a moral responsibility there by the seller to ensure that whatever the product they're selling, is usable in the way that it was intended to be used," she said.
Ehrlich said the city won't put up any money and the federal government says it passed liability onto the territorial government decades ago.
The territorial government has agreed to do an environmental assessment, she said.
City official Mike Gau said the city will help where it can.
"But financially, it is problematic when the city didn't have anything to do with the contamination in the first place," said Gau.
He said Ehrlich is the sixth owner of the lot, following the federal government, the territorial government, the city and the two earlier private owners.
Gau said the city did soil testing before selling the lots, including a test near Ehrlich's lot.
They did not show any contamination, he said.
Gau said there are old photos showing a building on the lot in the 1950s.
He said it's likely the cause of the contamination was a leaking oil tank.