Officials Begin Removal of Decades‑Old Fermented Fish Sauce Tanks Plaguing Newfoundland Village

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Residents of St. Mary’s can finally breathe easy as crews begin removing the source of a long‑standing stench.

What is causing the foul smell that has troubled this scenic village of roughly 300 residents in Newfoundland and Labrador?

Roughly 110 abandoned tanks, each containing about 3,000 gallons of fermented fish sauce, remain from the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company, which shut down over two decades ago.

The site fell into disrepair—windows shattered, the roof ripped away, a winter storm toppled a wall—while the sauce continued to ferment, sending its odor drifting over the town.

St. Mary’s volunteer mayor, Steve Ryan, says the stench is difficult to put into words.

“It’s like the worst rotten fish you’ve ever encountered, multiplied a hundredfold,” he told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday.

As work crews launched a major cleanup at the derelict plant this week, Mayor Ryan observed the proceedings with mixed emotions.

“It’s a huge relief,” he said, noting the town’s long campaign to secure provincial funding for the cleanup, while the federal government has not provided any financial support.

“That frustration makes me a bit angry,” said Ryan, who worked briefly at the plant after graduating high school in 1990. “Every door we knocked on was shut in our face… they simply forgot about us.”

Over the coming months, crews will drain the fluid from the tanks and blend it with peat moss to absorb the liquid, he explained.

Trucks equipped with large hoses will then suction the mixture and haul it to a pit excavated over three weeks, lined with high‑density polyethylene landfill liner, before being capped with topsoil.

Glenn Sharp, owner of Sharp Management, the firm supervising the operation, described it as a “unique job.”

“This is a special type of waste,” he said. “It does not fit into any standard disposal category.”

Ryan said the project will cost about 1.7 million Canadian dollars (US$1.21 million). The town has taken out a loan of 198,000 Canadian dollars (US$140,973) to cover its share, which it expects to be reimbursed later.

He hopes that once the work is finished, the memory of the stench will fade.

“We’re a tiny community that was left to fend for itself,” he said. “For years, no one came to our aid.”

But we “kept fighting and fighting,” he added, “because we knew we were on the right side of the issue.”

Source link