Province takes over cleanup at Samborski composting site

The Manitoba government says Samborski Environmental has not shown satisfactory progress in removing its industrial scale composting operations from a site near Winnipeg’s residential Whyteridge neighbourhood.

"Compost shouldn't smell like what you smell here today,” said Don Labossiere of Manitoba Conservation and Stewardship.

“This is the type of atmosphere the folks around here, both residents and businesses have had to put up with the past 6 years or so."

As a result, Tuesday the province sent in contractors to take over the job and will attempt to recover costs from Samborski Environmental.

According to the province, Manitoba Conservation and Stewardship received more than 500 complaints from area residents and businesses about offensive odours emitting from the site.

The province issued an Environmental Protection Order in July of 2013 and Samborski appealed to the Court of Queen’s Bench but lost.

The province hired a company called Progressive Waste Solutions to continue the cleanup and expects it to be completed by the end of February.

But the company insists it has complied with the order, saying the remaining material isn’t compost at all, but instead is Garden ready soil.

"This is theft. They're taking our material. It's our material,” said Paul Samborski.

Lenn Samborski is gathering samples of the material on site to prove it’s not compost and he says someone should have to pay for this action by the province.

“Someone’s in a whole lot of hot water here,” he said.