East Ladner residents have been holding their noses recently.
A number of complaints have come to municipal hall and Metro Vancouver regarding an obnoxious odour in the area.
According to Mike Brotherston, manager of climate action and environment for the municipality, both Delta and regional district enforcement staff investigated the complaints and found the source of the odour is multiple farms in the area spreading chicken manure on their fields as fertilizer.
Brotherston's memo to the CAO, which is available for viewing on the municipal website, notes the spreading of manure on farm fields is considered "normal farm practice" and is exempt from local nuisance bylaws under the Provincial Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act.
Noting they will continue to investigate the odour complaints, Brotherston said some residents have indicated the Enviro-Smart Organics composting facility on 72nd Street is a potential source of the odour.
However, in the period since a compost facility licence has been issued to the business, all odour complaints received have been attributed by both Delta and Metro Vancouver staff to the spreading of manure by other farmers, Brothertson stated.
This spring, Delta council approved a one-year contract with Enviro-Smart Organics Ltd., a subsidiary company of West Coast Instant Lawns located at the same 72nd Street facility, to send Delta's yard waste, source separated food waste and agricultural solid waste there instead of to a Richmond facility.
Last year Delta supported West Coast Instant Lawns' application to Metro Vancouver for a compositing facility licence after the company earlier presented Delta with a proposal that would see the facility process municipal green waste. As well, the deal would provide residents free dumping of green waste, while the company would also provide Delta a reduced price for topsoil purchases.
The agreement would save the municipality about $300,000 in tipping fees.
In order to be authorized to accept organic municipal solid waste, a regional district compost facility licence was required.
One condition of the licence is for the facility not to operate in a manner that generates odour to an extent it causes a nuisance or adversely affects the surrounding area.
The agreement with the municipality bans Enviro-Smart from accepting a number of materials, including chicken manure, fish and hatchery waste, abattoir waste and dead animals, biosolids and wastewater treatment plant sludge.
Several years ago a large number of complaints were made by residents against the company when it began to process chicken manure, so the firm stopped the practice.
