After years of odour complaints about a biosolids composting facility in Moncton, New Brunswick, the city council is requesting that the facility either enclose the materials on its property, or completely move out of the growing north-end neighbourhood altogether.
The February 5th meeting of Moncton city council acknowledged that TransAqua, also known as the Greater Moncton Wastewater Commission, is a corporate entity created by the province, which means city officials have limited authority to direct operations at the biosolids composting facility.
“This motion is to show we’re united as a council and we’re going to stand up for the people affected by this,” said Councillor Charles Léger. “We can send this off, but we can’t impose anything on them, based on what I’m reading legally,” he added, while expressing surprise that there have not been more direct discussions with TransAqua management to date.
Council acknowledged that the TransAqua facility may be operating well within the legal conditions of its regulatory framework — and even has an odour mitigation plan — but they still want further action to be taken.
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As the number of residences near the sewage composting facility and other commercial operations have grown over two decades from a handful of homes into hundreds of homes, so grew the number of odour complaints called into the municipality.
“We had water pollution, and now we have air pollution,” said Councillor Bryan Butler. “We want people in the north end to have the quality of life that they deserve.”
In January, council heard the results of an air quality study, which determined that none of the 16 detected volatile organic compounds in the area of the facility exceeded allowable levels.
Council also noted that the facility has taken new odour mitigation measures as recently as January 2024; however, the details around those measures are unknown, as well as their impact on odour reduction.
The communities of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview have all appointed members to TransAqua’s board, which has yet to comment on the new direction from council.
TransAqua’s outgoing board chair, Michel Desjardins, was present for the recent council debate. He told CBC News after the meeting that the direction will be taken seriously by the board.
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Related Professional Development Course
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