Long-awaited odour report from Richibucto shellfish plant leaves critics baffled

Residents of Richibucto have long struggled to describe the stench wafting over their community from a local shellfish-waste processing plant.

Burnt wires mixed with rotting lobster summed it up for many.

And for years, many worried what exactly they were breathing, said Maisie Rae McNaughton of the Kent Clean Act Action Committee.

So when she found out that Coastal Shell Products did an "odour evaluation" last fall as part of the testing process for a new piece of equipment, she was eager to hear the results.

But after reading the odour evaluation report, she has little confidence in it.

McNaughton said she expected it to be a scientific evaluation of what was in the air, but instead, regular people took a sniff and recorded what they thought they smelled.

"I don't see the science behind it," said McNaughton.

Part of approval from province

The testing was done to measure the impact of new odour-reducing technology installed by the company, which was a requirement for the approval to operate from the Department of Environment.

So Coastal Shell Products hired St. Croix Sensory, a Minnesota-based, odour-testing company with a laboratory in Ontario, to evaluate the smells coming from the plant.

Laboratory director Thomas Vallarino said the company relies on the customer to collect and deliver air samples to the lab in Burlington, Ont. In this case, Coastal Shell Products provided 18 air samples.

According to the report, which was obtained by the Kent Clean Air Action Committee, the samples were collected on Oct. 1 and tested the next day.

Vallarino said the samples were tested by a panel of eight people who meet industry standards.

"So these are normal folks who have a trained sense of smell," he said.

The company's website says testing is done in a "specialized room designed to provide an odour-free environment." Panellists have to be non-smokers, not use scented products or cosmetics and not interfere with odour testing because of a "lack of hygiene."

They also can't "eat, chew gum, or drink (other than water) within 30 minutes of the start of an evaluation session."

The collected samples are then delivered to the person's nose by a "sniff port" that's designed to deliver the sample at a "uniform face velocity" that allows the person to "easily sniff from the port without the sample being diluted by ambient air."

Among other things, the person is asked to provide a descriptor for each smell from a list that includes words that include decay, sulfur, animal, burnt and spice.

Eight people rating 18 samples allows for 144 answers. Only four of the 18 samples detected "sea" or "fish" — and in all four of those cases, it was only by one person out of eight. That was the exact same number of people who said they smelled floral or fruit.

The most common descriptors used were "chemical" and "plastics."

The evaluators were also asked to rate the smell on a scale of "pleasantness," with –10 being the stinkiest, zero being neutral and 10 being the most pleasant. The average of the 18 samples were between –1.9 and –5.

Value of testing questioned

McNaughton said the report "just seems completely skewed and I don't see the science behind it."

She also questions it because she remembers the smell on the day the samples were taken.

On Oct. 1, McNaughton said she spoke to an Environment Department official parked outside the Coastal Shell plant who explained that air samples were being collected.

McNaughton said she immediately protested the value of such a test.

"And I said to her flat out, 'Do you see how there is no smell right now? There is no smell.' And she said that, you know, we weren't in the line of fire."

McNaughton calls the report "deeply flawed" and says the "whole thing to me just makes me scratch my head."

Operations set to resume

So with the start of the snow crab fishery expected soon, Coastal Shell is expected to resume operations after a roughly four-month reprieve for Richibucto residents.

McNaughton said she envies people who greet spring's arrival with a fond look forward.

For her and others, it only brings dread.

"While the rest of the province — and the rest of the country really — gets to look forward to warmer days and say, 'Ah, summer is coming, spring is around the corner,' our community just looks and goes, 'Oh, here we go again.'

"And that's wrong. I don't care how you slice it, that is so wrong. We should be able to breathe clean air. We should be able to play with our kids outside."

McNaughton has tried to meet with government officials, but said she's been turned down.

Maisie Rae McNaughton from the Kent Clear Air Action Committee questions the value of last fall's evaluation of odours from the Coastal Shell Products plant. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

"The season hasn't even started yet and it feels like the current government has just completely turned their back on our community already."

The group is also in a holding pattern after trying to get a court injunction against Coastal Shell. In December, the company argued that because it produces fertilizer, it is an agricultural operation and therefore its operations can't be blocked in court. It argued the residents' complaints should have gone to the provincial Farm Practices Review Board instead.

The judge said that since she was unable to determine whether Coastal Shell Products is an agricultural operation, she agreed with the company that residents need to file a complaint with the provincial board.

Residents did file an application with the board and were told they would have to wait 90 days for a response. That, said McNaughton, is April 17.

"The Farm Practices Review Board received an application related to what you are asking about," confirmed Nick Brown, a spokesperson for the Agricultural Department, in an email.

"The application is currently under review. The department is unable to provide comment until the review process is finalized."

The Environment Department confirmed Friday that Coastal Shell is free to resume operations as of March 31, albeit with restricted hours. The approval to operate is in effect until Aug. 31, 2024.

In an email, department spokesperson Clarissa Andersen said the plant cannot operate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

A spokesperson for the Environment Department said there haven't been any odour complaints from École Soleil Levant, seen here in this file photo, since the start of the school year. The Coastal Shell Products plant can be seen in the distance, beyond a stand of trees. (Google Street view)

"Department staff will continue to monitor odours within the community and ensure that the facility is taking the necessary steps to reduce the frequency and severity of odours," wrote Andersen.

"There have not been any odour complaints from the school since the start of the school year. The company continues to work at installing odour reducing technologies."

Omer Gaudet, a co-owner of Coastal Shell Products, could not be reached on his cell phone and has not responded to a voicemail message left on Thursday.