Residents continue to express concerns over the AIM scrapyard on Toombs Street in Moncton.

They held protests on Friday and Saturday.

“We are trying to relocate to a heavy industrial park. They’re currently in a zone for a light industrial park. So right now we have a junkyard in a residential area and we are trying to get them to move,” Jessie Babin told us.

She has lived in a home that she says is basically in their backyard.

“Noise is a huge problem. Not just the noise but the vibrations caused by the noise. You can be in your house with headphones on and try to block it out and you still feel it. There’s the smell of propane so you often get these fumes and depending on which way the wind is blowing, you have people a mile away smelling this stuff. It’s an eyesore. There’s a nature path, right near them. There’s a brook and it’s full of garbage. It’s also pollution. So it’s really just overall gross.”

The City of Moncton is acknowledging concerns from residents.

“We have been working closely with AIM and with the province to find ways to reduce the impact of the salvage yard operation on residents in the neighbourhood. A number of steps have already been taken and others are in progress, so we are hopeful conditions will continue to improve as mitigation strategies are implemented,” Elaine Aucoin, General manager of Sustainable Growth and Development Services says.

She confirmed the following steps have been taken to date:

• The City’s By-Law Enforcement Division continues to monitor noise levels weekly.
• AIM’s Approval to Operate was renewed by the Department of Environment and Local Government and is valid until July 31, 2024.

Aucoin adds that the approval to Operate requires AIM to submit an updated Prevention and Control Plan to address odour, dust, and site run-off being released from the facility and also submit a plan to ensure regular verification and clean-up of on-site debris within the 30-metre watercourse buffer.

A third party must also be engaged to develop a noise mitigation plan to address noise affecting off-site receptors.

City administration met with AIM representatives in April and May, and an update is expected to be provided at a public meeting of Moncton City Council in June.