The province’s Ministry of the Environment has found no link between the city’s new composting plant and odour complaints from the public since the plant reopened in February.
A new MOE report on its investigations of local odour complaints says odours were found on the site of the city’s Waste Resource Innovation Centre on Dunlop Drive, but no organic or garbage-related smells were detected near the new organics processing plant.
This composting plant stopped taking organic waste after odour complaints last fall, and changes were made to the facility before it started up again in February.
Since February, the MOE has received nine odour complaints from the public, according to a summary of the ministry’s report. Four of them came between July 9 and Aug. 17, when the city was testing how the new composting plant operates at full capacity.
Responding to these four complaints on two different days, the MOE detected garbage odours and sewage/wastewater odours at the Waste Resource Innovation Centre. The smells were detected around the transfer station, the dry processing plant and a wastewater/leachate tank. Since then, the city has rectified the issue with this tank by installing a rubber seal around its access hatch, the summary report said.
Some the odours that were investigated may be linked to a nearby facility that isn’t part of the Waste Resource Innovation Centre, it said.
The MOE has recommended that the city submit an action plan on dealing with the odour issue, which would include an assessment of the potential for odour-abatement systems for the dry plant and the transfer station, it said. Among other things, the city also plans to look at potential changes to its loose-leaf bag collection area.