To some, it may be a job that stinks, but someone has to do it.
Members of the community, Wellington North Township, the Ministry of the Environment and owners of All Treat Farms, are working together to deal with odour issues from the composting facility in Arthur.
Recently, a Newsletter was sent to Arthur residents to let people know of an April 10 meeting at the Arthur and community centre. About 50 people came to see what is happening.
That Newsletter outline the issues thus far.
“All Treat Farms has been in Arthur for more than 50 years. Over the years it has become an industry leader in Ontario in developing organic products from compost.
“In recent years, concerns have been expressed by people who live and work in Arthur regarding the odours from the composting operations. In response, a joint initiative has been established by All Treat Farms, the Township of Wellington North and the Guelph district office of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.”
An agreement was signed in November to work together to develop and manage a two-track strategy which includes an odour action plan and a community engagement plant.
The Newsletter continued, “In the process, the Arthur community is coming together in ways that it has not before, not just to watch what is happening, but to participate in it.”
The Newsletter also provided this description of what happens at the All Treat composting facility.
– Trucks bring in organic materials – leaves, yard waster and food waste from restaurants and grocery stores – to the entrance on County Road 12. Materials are unloaded, mixed and shredded and ground up to prepare for composting.
– Some of the material goes to the GORE cover system, where it is placed on concrete pads and covered, using a machine. The GORE cover system has fans that pump oxygen into each compost row to accelerate the decomposition process. The process is computer controlled and monitored.
– Some material goes to a wedge system, where it is put in big mounds and bulldozers are used to move the material around to get air and moisture mixed in. At the finishing stage, the material is “screened” to remove unwanted material, such as metal, plastic, and stones.
The odour action plan follows up on recommendations of an expert’s report in September from Zorix, one of the major North American firms specializing in odour management. That report identified the best technology on site to reduce odour – the GORE cover system.
The wind direction was also defined as contributing to most off-site odours experienced by residents. The report also identified that the grinding and screening of raw materials generated the most odours.
The current plan includes a number of initiatives to reduce odour, including:
– expansion of the composting technology that emits the least odour – the GORE cover system – so that it can process more of the organic waste that is coming to All Treat.
– directing all of the most readily biodegradable materials, which smell the most when they are composting, to the GORE cover system.
– treating the less odourous materials that break down more slowly in the wedge composting system, such as ground wood and yard waste.
– avoid screening and other compost processing activities on the site when the wind direction is from the south and is more likely to spread odours to neighbouring properties.
The Newsletter stated that All Treat has already taken a number of initiatives.
– Purchased and installed new equipment so that more of the organic waste can be put in the GORE cover system
– Used some night shifts and 24-hour shifts to do the winter turning of the leaves in February to get it done as quickly as possible
– Covering all wet organics on the day of arrival.
– Investigating the use of an odour scrubbing unit (mist blower) and other masking products.
– Starting the screening process as early as possible in the spring to avoid doing so in the hottest summer months.
The April meeting was intended to be the first in a number. with further information to be posted on http://odoursolutions.cenet.ca.
Ogilvie said no one is saying all the odours will be removed, but the intent is to reduce the severity and number of days when it happens.
Also speaking was Dr. Harry Hoitink, an expert on the best management practices to reduce odours in similar facilities. He said Ontario is more proactive than many parts of the United States.
“You don’t just dump [garbage] like in the U.S.”
He said the GORE system is the same as being used by other proactive systems. “You need to work with what you have and make it acceptable to the environment,” he said.
Dolly Goyette, of the Guelph office of the MOE, is working with the group at an arm’s length to ensure MOE compliance. She said the MOE role is to ensure clean and safe land, air, and water.
Goyette said that under the Environmental Protection Act a person or company cannot discharge contaminants that have an adverse effect such as harming the natural environment, causing injury or damaging property, harming health or impairing the normal use of a property.
She noted that All Treat operates under three certificates of approval – waste, air, and sewage.
“They are all public documents,” she said.
Goyette explained that in 2008 the certificate of approval for air quality was amended to allow more rows to be used under the GORE system. The additions rows, she said are not to allow more waste, but to manage odours better.
All Treat is also required to provide an annual report of its odour abatement plans, and there will be monitoring and assessment of air quality.
Goyette added that in 2007, the MOE conducted several inspections of the All Treat facility – two were formal investigations – the remainder informal to investigate complaints. She said the company passed its inspections, which brought up minor concerns – all of which were since resolved.
All Treat did fail an air quality inspection due to inadequate odour abatement facilities.
Goyette said since that time All Treat is working on an odour abatement plan and moving ahead on its implementation.
“At present, All Treat is in compliance with its certificate of approval,” she said. She said complaints from the community are taken very seriously.
Jennifer Armstrong is a citizen member of the committee working on the action plan. She has resided in Arthur of the past three years and has a degree in agriculture.
Armstrong described the committee as a very diverse group working to find a common ground. She believes the work being done will hold All Treat accountable, and that the company has shown its committee went to the process.
“I feel they’ve done a really good job at implementing the steps they said they would. When you see the technology used, you see they are not a backyard composting operation.
“We are all working towards a green community and this is helping to make a greener tomorrow.”
Numerous questions were fielded from the floor. Many of them followed the theme of questions raised at other public meetings.
Arthur resident Al Rawlins asked if All Treat has changed something in its operations in the past few years. He noted a considerable number of trucks arrive from Toronto. He had no issue with composting or green communities, but wondered what exactly was being brought in to be composted.
President George White said part of the materials now include household organics. Some of those include more fats and spices than previous compost operations had.
However, the trickiest item to compost, he said, is leaves. He also noted that because of the nature of the operation – experimentation is not a short-term process.
A compost operation may take a year, not six weeks, White said.
However, with the GORE system, he said that anything involving food organic is processed immediately. He said one of the mistakes made in the past was storing materials in order to process them as full rows of compost. That no longer happens.
White said materials are put into the system the same day.
As for Toronto trucks throughout the winter, White was adamant those contain leaf and yard waste.
Others in the audience contended they were quite aware of the smell of fields in the springtime, but this is not what the compost smells like.
White said All Treat does not bring in sewage, the facility has never been licenced to compost that material. What it has done in the past is accept industrial waste water, which has included washdowns from a local abbatoir.
Dr. Hoitink said that one issue is that people tend to become sensitized about odours. “Odours can play tricks on people,” he said.
“If there was a sewage or air quality violation, it would have been shut down by the MOE.”
Goyette said the certificate of approval never included sewage treatment.
White said suggestions have been made that All Treat has taken in sewage. “We have not.”
He agreed that from time to time, row of compost have had their own distinct odour and that may be where the issue is.
Long time resident Dave Stack said that when one of his students said Arthur stinks, he couldn’t really disagree. He suggested that having such a facility at the edge of any community is a mistake.
While George and Lynda White are great corporate citizens, he said he did not believe anyone had planned to put a compost facility on the edge of a village.
He and other residents wondered if consideration was ever made to moving the composting portion of the operation.
George White said the the cost would make such a move almost impossible.
Others contended the dust and odour present real health issues to those with allergies and asthma.
To those who were concerned the MOE was not really aware,Mike Durst of the MOE said he has been there on a hot summer day.
“I have smelled the smell.”
Oglivie pointed out this is the first in a series of public meetings.
Another, not-yet-set meeting, will likely be later this year to provide a chance for the current actions to yield results.
