Lingering stink is nauseating, say residents of Fredericton neighbourhood

Listen to this article

Estimated 3 minutes

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

Residents of a Fredericton neighbourhood have grown impatient with the unpleasant odours from a sewage treatment plant that have been lingering in the community since late spring.

“It gags your stomach,” said Vaughan Munn, who can see the plant from his outdoor patio, where he used to eat his dinner after work.

The city’s Barker Street Water & Sewer Utility, in the north-side neighbourhood of Devon, treats more than 21 million litres of wastewater from homes and businesses each day, according to the city hall website.

Once “biosolids” are separated from the water, they are “composted and re-used in manufactured topsoil,” the site says.

Munn blames the transportation of these biosolids for the worst of the smell.

WATCH | ‘I would describe it as an outhouse,’ resident says:

Why is there a ‘nauseating’ smell on Fredericton’s north side?

Residents in the Devon area of Fredericton have been complaining about a sewage-like odour in the community.

“When the winds are really blowing good, it’s really strong and a lot stronger when they haul it because the smell comes off the big dump truck.”

The city says it has been working on a solution.

Munn said he considered himself an outdoors person until the stink arrived.

“You don’t see people walking like you used to, or sitting on balconies anymore,” he said. “You should be able to set out and go for walks and do what you want without having to smell that smell.”

Stacey Gee, who lives just down the street from Munn, said she lived beside a similar sewage treatment plant in Ontario before moving to New Brunswick four years ago.

A woman with glasses and brown hair — Stacey Gee, who lives just down the road from the sewage plant, she said the odours are “nauseating.” (Submitted by Stacey Gee)

“It wasn’t like that at all, it never smelled like that,” Gee said of the Ontario plant.

“You would once in a while get a little whiff of something because I lived right on the water by it.”

The smell started becoming more prominent in late spring, Gee said, and she doesn’t leave the house without a mask.

“When the trucks do go by, I will have something to protect me a little bit,” she said.

“It’s not COVID anymore, it’s just unnatural for me to walk with that [mask] but I have to. This is getting to be too much.”

City changes hours of operation

Supervising the treatment plant is Marc Colwell, who said the stench worsens in summer, when the increased heat leads to increased bacteria growth.

“We use that bacteria to treat the wastewater through the system, and in the summer that bacteria grows faster,” Colwell said. “And in that process we do get some excess odours.”

A man with a blue shirt and glasses — Marc Colwell, supervisor of the city’s Barker Street Water and Sewage Utility, said his team is working to mitigate the stink. (Ian Curran/CBC)

Colwell couldn’t explain why this year was worse than others, but he said the more bacteria grows, the harder the plant has to work.

This additional bacteria growth has required more dewatering, he said. The plant has been operating 28 hours on top of its usual 40 hours a week, which creates a stink for longer, he said.

But now, as part of the solution, the smelliest part of plant operations will take place starting at midnight and finish by 4 p.m. each day. These operations used to start in the morning and continue into the evening.

Colwell said staff have been experimenting with chemical treatments to mitigate the smell but are still figuring it out.

“Unfortunately, the things we do take time,” he said. “If we started adding a chemical today, it may take a couple of weeks. It’s not a quick process to make a change.”