Residents in a Fredericton-area neighbourhood are upset they were not immediately notified after traces of chromium turned up in a monitoring well at the site of a chemical spill.

An official with the Department of Environment is telling people in the area there is no cause for concern, but local residents say the provincial government let them down by not telling them about the test results.

Serge Gagnon had assembled reporters at the site of the spill on Melissa Street to explain how the cleanup work at the site of the October 2008 spill was going well, with 80 per cent of the chemical recovered and all of the contaminated ground removed.

Gagnon said there would, however, be two new monitoring wells dug because one that was on private property had shown traces of hexavalent chromium.

"There's no cause for concern and their drinking water is still being sampled on a weekly basis and it's fine," Gagnon said.

Homeowners with property alongside the spill site also attended the media briefing.

Elaine Hoyt, a local resident, said she wanted to know why they weren't immediately informed of this latest finding as they'd been promised.

And she wanted to know why Gagnon would not tell them what levels had been found.

Gagnon said because the monitoring well was on private property, he could not release details.

"If this monitoring well was on your property, would you want the world to know?" Gagnon said.

When pressed further about why homeowners weren't informed about this latest development, Gagnon would not respond.

"We'll have this discussion another time. I don't want to do it in front of the media," he said.

Hoyt and the other residents told reporters that this is the way they've been treated by the government since their problems began more than a year ago.

"Sneaking behind everybody's back to have this little public meeting with the media. You didn't notify any of the homeowners of this meeting," Hoyt said to the environment official.

The province first warned residents in October 2008 not to drink well water after more than 2,700 litres of chromium trioxide spilled at a nearby business, Custom Machine & Hardchrome.