Residents living near Fredericton’s Barker Street sewage treatment plant say a persistent, foul smell has become unbearable, especially when trucks hauling sludge pass by. The city’s wastewater facility, which uses microorganisms to break down waste and produces biosolids for reuse as topsoil, is handling increased flow due to population growth. Officials acknowledge the strain, noting extra operating hours and a shift to night‑time work to curb the odour, while exploring chemical treatments and monitoring atmospheric conditions.
Residents Raise Concerns Over Plant Odour
For those on the north side of Fredericton, the scent from the treatment plant has lingered for months, making outdoor time a challenge. Clyde Bungay, a local resident, described the experience starkly: “You want to breathe through your nose. If you breathe through your mouth, you almost taste it. That’s how bad it is.” He noted that the smell intensifies when sludge trucks travel along Barker Street, affecting neighbours who are often at home during the day.
Operational Pressures and Biosolids Output Rise
Marc Colwell, the city’s wastewater treatment supervisor, explained that the plant’s workload has grown alongside Fredericton’s population. Since he began in 2019, the annual biosolids total has risen from roughly 4,500 tonnes to about 6,000 tonnes. “It depends a lot on flows, how much rainfall we get, things like that,” Colwell said. To keep pace, staff are putting in an extra 25 hours each week, and the plant has historically run its odour‑heavy processes from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., a schedule that coincides with residents being outdoors in the summer.
Exploring Odour Mitigation Strategies
The municipality is trialling potassium permanganate, an oxidiser, to neutralise the smell, although officials warn the chemical will take time to become effective. Kripa Shankar Singh, a civil and chemical engineering professor at the University of New Brunswick, highlighted that weather patterns and wind direction play a significant role in how the odour disperses. He cautioned that heavy reliance on chemicals carries trade‑offs, including cost and potential impacts on the reuse of sludge. Singh also stressed that a strong smell alone does not automatically indicate a health hazard; concentration and exposure frequency are key factors, though persistent high levels could pose toxic concerns.
The city continues to test biosolids every three months in line with federal regulations, reporting results that remain within provincial norms. Requests for comment from the New Brunswick government on health thresholds, air monitoring and oversight went unanswered before publication. In response to the complaints, Colwell announced a shift in timing for the most odour‑intensive work: “What we’ve decided to do recently is move that process and start at midnight… So we’re going to work from midnight through the day to our normal end of day at 4 p.m.”
Why it Matters
The situation in Fredericton illustrates a growing challenge for municipalities across Canada: balancing essential wastewater treatment with community quality of life, especially as urban populations expand. While the plant’s biosolids programme offers a sustainable route to reuse waste, the accompanying odour underscores the need for innovative, low‑impact mitigation measures — lessons that resonate with Western Canadian energy hubs where similar waste streams from oil sands and municipal projects are increasingly scrutinised for both environmental and social effects. Effective odour management not only protects public wellbeing but also safeguards the social licence required for continued resource recovery and infrastructure development.
