Plug your noses: Calgary airport smell expected to stick around for years

The Calgary International Airport is working on mitigating the impact of a rotten-egg smell coming from a storm water pond on an annual basis.

A terrible smell that’s lingering around the Calgary International Airport is expected to continue for at least the next few years, officials say.

It comes from glycol, a liquid used to de-ice planes in the winter, which drains into a settling pond near the facility.

The airport says it decomposes there over the spring and summer but emits an odour like rotten eggs.

Officials say the smell can also come from rotting sediment and organic matter in storm water ponds.

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The stink, which can be carried further into nearby communities on windy days, has prompted complaints from area residents and calls to the Calgary Fire Department about a “gas leak”.

No risk to public health

The odour isn’t hazardous, but staff are looking at a permanent way to eliminate it, although the work is only preliminary.

“The work is underway on the designs and then in the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll do the construction work and then we should have solved that problem,” said Chris Dinsdale, president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority.

He says the smell drifts into neighbourhoods only under certain circumstances and work is being done to reduce its impact until the permanent solution comes online.

That work includes regular maintenance on the storm water ponds at the airport.

The permanent fix is expected to cost about $5 million.