The playing fields between the Foothills Centennial Centre and Foothills Composite High School will be going through some environmental tests next week.

Due to the field sites being at one time a landfill till 1982, the Town is always on the ball to make sure the proper health and safety codes are up to date.

Facilities Maintenance Manger for the Town Brian Couronne says due to the groundbreaking at the twinning of Pason Centennial Arena they decided to do another check of the fields behind the eventual new rink in case something changes from now until the completion of construction.

'We've been doing annual testing on this it's just part of our maintenance procedures that we do in our ongoing management of the land filter to insure public health and safety of the area," he says. "The process is monitored on the playing fields on a regular basis."

Couronne says there's a few ways they test to make sure the fields don't become contaminated.

"We have eight test ports that are along the parking lot between FCC and Pason Centennial Arena, we just do annual testing. We have an environmental company come in and they are consultants, they test the levels of potential methane that might be there and they come back with a report."

In years past since the landfill was closed and turned into now what is a high school and multi-purpose facilities, Couronne says the Town hasn't experienced any environmental risks but it's still ongoing process to make sure nothing get out of hand.

"This year we had some concerns with the high water table and it's pushed some of the methane up higher but it hasn't been a problem. But we have to provide Alberta Health and Environment annual reports to them and there hasn't been any concerns."

A drilling rig will be set-up at both sports fields at the Centennial Centre and Falcons Field on October 18 to take core samples and test them weather permitting which could lead to some short closures.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com