Something Fishy in Rural Municipality

By Dan Guetre

“Putrid” was the most common word used when both residents and council described a smell residents had been complaining about for months.

At a recent RM of Ste. Anne council meeting, a public hearing was called to listen to public comments regarding a proposal for Overton Environmental to continue with a new feature at their composting site located just northeast of the small community of Giroux.

According to CEO Dale Overton who was there representing his company, he was approached about 6 months ago to create a pilot project with the goal of taking waste from the Canadian Fresh Water Marketing Corp and turn it into fertilizer. While the initial plan was to utilize their Portage la Prairie facility, it was moved to the Giroux site.

He started his presentation to council informing them of how successful the pilot project was with the hope of continuing the processing of fish waste into compost. The plan was to bring to the site 16 tonnes of raw fish waste a day on average and mix it with other mediums to create an organic fertilizer.

This was probably the time he realized it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

Multiple residents registered for the hearing and took time to speak about the “putrid” smell that was emanating throughout the area and how they were affected by not being able to use their decks and yards due to the smell. They also stressed their concern that the rotting fish could attract more predators to the area, a safety concern for their children.

While Overton explained that there were 7 new local jobs created revolving around this new project, he also assured residents that he would work towards mitigating the smell.

Both residents and council were not convinced. Many cited the fact that over the months, the smell and issues existed, and they question why the “mitigation” was not solved.

“We appreciate you creating jobs,” said Reeve Richard Pellettier, “but at what cost?”

Pat Stolwyk, one of the councilors mentioned how he went to investigate when he found out residents were complaining.

“I drove by there today and it stunk pretty bad,” said Stolwyk.

“It was putrid in the worst way. In the grand scheme of thing, the residents in that area… that smell was bad.”

Overton’s response seemed to put the situation in perspective.

“It’s a compost operation, it’s not, not going to smell,” he quipped.

Councilor Sarah Normandeau questioned a particular term Overton used in his presentation to council.

“You used the words ‘live together’,” remarked Normandeau. “It’s hard to match those two things together when you have… like I did go to there and it did absolutely smell putrid.”

Normandeau noted that if she lived near there and had to go outside, have a pool or just entertain, she did not know if she could do it with that smell.

“I don’t know if I could even drink a cup of coffee outside to be honest, it was that bad,” she added.

Even Brad Ingles, a councilor who lives 7 miles away admitted he smelled something foul.

“I thought something died in my yard,” he stressed.

Stolwyk pressed Overton on whether the decision to move the operation to Giroux from Portage was more than a logistics decision.

“Well ultimately they always say it stinks,” he said referring to residents around Portage. “They say it stinks when we process the potato waste… it’s a compost operation.” With no lack of trying, Overton tried to explain that the product only smells when it first arrives and that once it is mixed with the woodchips and rolled into windrows, the smell goes away.

A simple bit of math pointed out by councilor Randy Eros showed the number of tonnes planned over