Stench of ‘rotting corpses’ affecting north Saskatoon, Donauer says

A Saskatoon City Councillor wants the city to explore options to address what he described as the “smell of rotting corpses,” on the city’s north side.

Randy Donauer said he believes the unpleasant odour is coming from West Coast Reduction, an animal rendering and oil recycling plant located in the north end’s industrial area.

He told council that, since last summer, he’s received dozens of complaints about a continuing, horrific stench in the area around the plant.

“The smell is putrid some days and evenings,” Donauer said. “Residents are telling me they don’t sit out on their deck. They don’t go outside. They don’t take their kids to the park when the smell is wafting through the city. It turns your stomach.”

He said the smell is so bad that people are also worried about the air quality.

“They smell rotting corpses,” Donauer said.

“They process dead farm animals, or dead animals there. You’re smelling the decay. They used to keep it under control more by keeping their bay doors closed, sealing things off when they were processing.”

According to West Coast Reduction’s web page, the rendering plant was built in 1990.

One thing to keep in mind, Donauer said, is that the company is located in a heavy industrial zone, so they’re in the right place. However, he noted, residential areas have popped up downwind from that zone, and he believes that should never have happened.

“Part of the problem we’re having is (the company) isn’t in violation of our zoning bylaw,” he explained.

Donauer said there should be some “common sense” restrictions on how much noise and odour can come out of those heavy industrial areas.

“Odours that come off of heavy industrial are meant to be reasonable,” the councillor said.

Donauer said he plans to file a motion at the next council meeting calling for a report from administration to be completed, in order to determine whether the city or the Saskatchewan Health Authority can test for air quality in the area, and whether there are any options to help control the smell in the area around the plant.

He said he’s hoping for the report to be completed by the end of February.

West Coast Reduction responds

Ken Ingram is the Director of Technical and Environmental Services for West Coast Reduction. He said he was surprised to hear about Donauer’s plans for a motion, and noted he hasn’t heard anything recently from the City of Saskatoon that would indicate there’s any potential problem at the Saskatoon rendering plant.

“The last communication from their staff was that they would not investigate further, and the most recent complaint that notifies us was closed,” he said.

While they haven’t heard from the city recently, Ingram noted that over the past year the company’s Saskatoon plant has received about a dozen complaints.

“Some of them attribute the odour to the rendering plant … but we’re not aware of any investigations from the City that have verified the source of the odour,” he said.

Ingram said he would like to sit down with city staff to determine what the issues could be.

West Coast Reduction’s Vancouver rendering plant has also been the source of complaints by local residents in the past. The biggest challenge in that case was actually identifying the source of potentially noxious odours. A proposal from West Coast Reduction intended to improve dispersion of the exit stacks, Ingram said.

“The dispersion in Saskatoon, and the characteristics of that discharge stack, are much better than the original one here in Vancouver,” Ingram explained.

That said, if the rendering plant is the source of the smell, Ingram said it’s extremely concerning.

“We take this pretty seriously,” said Ingram. “It’s a high priority for us and a grave concern that there might be something going on up there that we’re not aware of.”

He said the company will reach out to the City of Saskatoon to make sure everyone knows as much as they can, and to figure out if further action needs to be taken.