‘Smelling that odour’: Residents oppose site of future Sewage Treatment Plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

St. Thomas residents are petitioning against a future sewage treatment plant location. CTV London's Brent Lale has more.

Residents in the Dalewood area are making one last push to stop the City of St. Thomas, Ont. from putting a Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) in their backyard.

A petition has garnered around 500 signatures.

“We built our retirement home at the top of the hill and because the winds are westerly, we’ll be smelling that odour,” said Shirley Clement, an area resident.

“We won’t be able to enjoy our retirement home sitting out on our deck, watching the wildlife, which we loved. That’s why we built there.”

Clement said she didn’t find out the WRF would be at the corner of Dalewood Road and Water Tower Line until about a week ago.

“We didn’t know until a week ago, and some people will say you should have known, but we got no notice at all. This is very distressing,” said Clement.

Sabrina Barouei lives about 500 metres away from the proposed site.

“It was a bit disappointing to know that there would be a lot of the things that come along with a plant, without the guarantees that we won’t have a smell or the traffic or the noise,” said Barouei, who recently purchased a home.

As part of their original growth plan, the city has been working for a couple of years to find the appropriate site. They’ve had information on their website and held public meetings. They narrowed it to three locations, then down to the final spot.

The location was informed based on five different criteria including socio-economic, natural environment, economic, technical and cultural environmental.

The proposed location received the highest scores.

“We are limited here in St. Thomas,” said Joe Preston, St. Thomas mayor.

“Kettle Creek runs through St. Thomas and it’s the only outlet for a Water Reclamation Facility. We had to find someplace along that path that isn’t close to the current Bush Line property or the Sunset (Drive) property. We’ve been spending a fair bit of coin each year on the Sunset property to continue to improve it. There was no room to move its capacity any greater.”

Preston said the current Water Pollution Control Plant was built more than 50 years ago.

Residents have complained about the smell over the year, but the city said odour control technology has come a long way. The project’s manager said a number of modern facilities in the region have very little odour at 50 metres away.

“We’ll put trees around it, and berms around it, we’ll do all of the most modern technology we can,” said Preston.

“I believe we’ve even talked about we’re taking it a step or two further in better odour control. We’ll continue to say as a city this is what we want to do for our residents.”

However, residents remain skeptical.

“On their website it says that there will be an odour regardless,” said Barouei.

“The things that we’re hearing and the responses we’re getting from the city say that there won’t be. It’s really conflicting views that we’re getting from them.”

Their concerns don’t stop with the odour.

“I’m hoping it will wake up the city to the concerns, especially given the proximity to residential areas, recreational areas, the Hospice, Dalewood Conservation Area and there’s two schools in close proximity to this area,” said Clement.

They also worry about native species, potential overflow into Waterworks Park, and the WRF being built on a culturally sensitive area.

“The environmental assessment report has noted that some native artifacts, some arrowheads have been found on this site,” said Nancy Turnbull, an area resident.

“I guess my question is to the mayor and to the city planners. Do you only test certain small areas? What else could be missed here? I think more investigation needs to be done to discover what else could be here.”

Preston said the site will actually be located in Central Elgin.

“We’ve got a pretty good agreement with Central Elgin, where we owe them a fair bit of reclaimed water and we’d like to be able to start delivering that to them for their own economic prosperity,” said Preston.

“The Ministry (of the Environment) agreed with the site we have now and said that’s the best place to put it.”

He said they haven’t completely shut the door on conversations with residents, but the plan is to move forward before the end of the year.

“We are well past the point of picking the site, now we really need to get building it,” said Preston.

Clement believes WRF Site 4 - just to the west of Site 3 – would be better for everyone.

“We’re never going to please all of the people all the time,” said Clement.

“Remember, the people have power, and they have power over the politicians.”