City has solution to the stench from its composting facility, but it can't use it yet

The city thinks it has an answer to the pungent stench wafting from an east-end composting facility. But it's still waiting on the province to give the OK to use it.

Hamilton has wanted to install carbon filters on the Central Composting Facility since last year, says Dan McKinnon, the city's general manager of public works. It's already tested them.

But the Ministry of Environment has to approve using the filters, and that likely won't happen for three or four months.

That process needs to go faster, said Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster. He'll move a motion at a future meeting to try to push the province along.

"Something doesn't sound right when you have citizens exposed to this horrible odour," he said at a council meeting Wednesday. 

"We have a solution. We have the dollars and we have the resources. (But) it hasn't been installed because we're trying to move some paper."

The city temporarily closed the composting facility late last week because the smell was so bad. It wafted over an Arkells concert at Tim Hortons Field. It clogged the nostrils of east-end residents who stayed in their homes with the windows shut tight.

Sam Merulla, Ward 4 councillor, said the city needs to move the facility altogether. He also wants "punitive measures" taken against Aim Environmental Group, which runs it as a third party. Council discussed that in camera, where it often discusses legal issues.

The east end is the core of Hamilton's renaissance, Merulla said. People pay $500,000 for houses there now. "This is not your grandfather's east end anymore.

"There might have been a time in the 1940s and 50s where we said, 'You know what? To hell with those guys down there. They bought a house in the industrial corridor. Now they have to live with it.' No. Those days are gone.

"We are the future of the city and we need to treat it that way."

The city is sending its compost to other facilities during the temporary closure. It urges residents not to change how they recycle and compost.

The city opened the facility at 1579 Burlington St. E. in 2006. The facility handles compost generated by Hamilton, Halton and Simcoe County — the equivalent of 70,000 tonnes per year from 1,668,000 people.