Dirty secret: Why vacant gas station lots go unused

Many empty lots like this one in Richmond used to be gas stations, and no one wants to pay the clean up costs. July 17, 2013. (CTV British Columbia)

Condo developers are known to scoop up any prime real estate available in Vancouver, so vacant lots are few and far between – with the exception of former gas stations.

The vacant properties litter the Lower Mainland, with at least 14 in Vancouver alone, and many sit idle for years on end as steep cleanup costs discourage future development.

Geoscientist Patrick Johnstone has nicknamed these former gas station properties “white pipe farms” because of the pipes used to test for ground contamination.

"It could be in the groundwater, it could be in the soil, or it could be in the vapours, "Johnstone said.

Cleanup can cost millions of dollars, but if the contamination doesn't pose an immediate hazard to human health or the environment, there's little the Ministry of Environment can do to compell the owners to deal with it.

As long as the companies that own the toxic land continue paying property taxes, they don't have to clean it up.

“If it’s just some gasoline that’s in the ground thirty feet below your building, you’re stuck,” Johnstone said.

At one site at Como Lake Avenue and Clarke Road in Coquitlam, oil seeped into neighbouring lots, but nothing was done about it until years later when construction of the Evergreen Line began.

Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie said the city is mostly concerned about the toll vacant lots take on neighbourhoods.

“Obviously these sites that are sitting fallow right now are a bit of an eyesore for our city; that’s why we’re hoping to work with them and try to find ways to make it work," Louie said.

One temporary fix is community gardens, which would be installed in containers safe from contamination, but finding a long-term solution is tricky.

Johnstone doubts such a solution exists.

“I think if there was a perfect solution we would have found it,” he said.

Though most lots are untouched, some are being cleaned up. Imperial Oil told CTV News it's investing $200 million annually into returning the sites to productive use for the surrounding communities.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Camille MacDonald