ALBERTON
Reacting to what she said is a long list of complaints from town residents, Alberton Town Councillor Kelly Williams on Monday asked council to file a formal complaint with the Department of Agriculture about farm odours coming from Westech Agriculture. Council agreed unanimously.
Westech Agriculture is a strawberry plant farm bordering on the north end of town. Williams, the town’s councillor responsible for environment, said residents started phoning complaints into the town office on November 30 after a composted seaweed and lobster body fertilizer mixture was stockpiled on the farmland.
Williams said some callers thought the smell was a propane leak and others wondered if there was a problem with the town lagoon, but she said the smell was traced back to the stockpiled material at Westech.
Messages were left at Westech Agriculture for farm owner Nora Dorgan, but she was unavailable for comment.
Eileen Kinch, who lives near Westech, described in a phone interview the smell that came off the pile as disgusting. She said she and a friend were walking along Route 12 just outside of the town limits on Nov. 30 when the dump trucks carrying the material arrived and found the odour overwhelming.
“It’s rotten. It smells like s-h-i-t, in plain English,” she said.
She said the material was stockpiled for at least a week before being spread.
In response to her concerns she said Shawn Schofield, an agriculture-environment officer, suggested spreading of the material was delayed due to soft ground.
“Well, why did she bring it here; why didn’t she just wait until she was ready to spread it?” Kinch wonders.
“It’s a common farm practice to use lobster bodies for compost,” Schofield said Tuesday in a telephone interview with the Journal Pioneer. “I feel for the town, but it is a farm practice.”
He said complaints about the practice would go to the Farm Practices Review Board.
Fields farmed by Westech extend about one kilometer into the north end of the town and the farm warehouses are within town limits.
WiIliams noted town council met with agriculture and environment officials last June to discuss concerns about Westech’s operations. She said it was her understanding stockpiled material would have to be tilled under within 48 hours.
Schofield said Tuesday’s that’s merely a recommendation. He said the agriculture and environment unit has been working with the grower to find ways to minimize the smell.
Schofield said a concern was brought to his attention by the town on Dec. 1, and on December 5 he received several calls, including ones from the RCMP, fire department and town office. He determined that the farm was spreading the compost that day, and digging into the pile stirred up the smell. It was fairly calm that day, he said, and the odour lingered.
“Fertilizer is fertilizer, and this isn’t fertilizer,” Kinch remarked. She said the late fall incident only adds to the frustrations of summertime odours when people couldn't go outside because of the smell and the flies.
“People are not going to come to Alberton, if they’ve got to live in that smell. You can’t do anything. It’s disgusting,” said Kinch.
“Residents of our town are, of course, very irate. I’ll use that word, because they are fed-up,” Williams told fellow councillors. “They feel we aren’t doing much as council.”
