The foul smell that has blanketed the Town of Antigonish over the summer and fall months, will hopefully be a thing of the past -the sewage treatment plant is going to get desludged.

The odour has been pungent and was disturbing residents for a while, but new mayor, Sean Cameron, is aiming to fix the problem with a major maintenance project.

Cameron tells our newsroom the issue was part of his election campaign, so council has moved pretty quickly on the matter.

“We got sworn in on Thursday and Friday…we called the meeting, awarded the tender and did a boring resolution so we could pay the new contractor.”

The project will cost the Town $400,000 and will come out of its reserves, with $125,000 specifically that will go to removing the muck.

And it will be a big job.

Cameron says the plant is the size of about five American football fields so the whole process is expected to take weeks.

“The last time, it took the equivalent of about 50 tractor trailer loads out of the plant. We anticipate there will be about 30 to 35 per cent more sludge this time.”

Why is the smell so bad?

As the population grows, there is more sludge.

Because of this, the oxygen that the aerators normally pump through, gets blocked and prevents the equipment from running as smooth as it normally does.

CAO of Antigonish, Randy Delorey tells us, this, in addition to summers heating up, makes for a bad combination.

“The oxygen transfer is more efficient in the cold weather than it is in warm weather. That was part of the challenge this summer. [With] the warmer weather, the water was warmer and so even with the systems working and the aeration taking place, it wasn’t as efficient for those two reasons. And again, with the sludge build up…so it just kind makes for an unpleasant smell for everybody.”

Delorey says, garbage also gets in and is another reason why the equipment doesn’t work as well.

“The things you see like chips bags or sanitary napkins and things like that are getting flushed and… they don’t break down biologically. They clog up our systems.”

Updating the system

The plant is 50 years old.

To help further mitigate the problem, staff discovered some modern sewage treatment plants have a front-end screening system.

Delorey says the plan is to add a piece of equipment like that on to the front of the current plant to keep things that should not be in there, out.

“So, we got approval, and funding was announced earlier this year, and the design work is being done with the expectation that construction begins in the spring, early summer.”

Changing the timeline

Typically, the treatment plant would get the gunk removed every ten years.

With warmer weather, that timeline is going to have to adjust.

Delorey says now they will have to use sludge levels to determine when the process needs to start.

“We can anticipate a year in advance, because we will see the rate that the sludge is accumulating, and we’ll be able to use that to make a recommendation, have the budgeting allocated and move forward with it.”

He offers apologies to community members for the terrible smell but the process to deal with it took time and Town staff worked hard.

Removing the sludge will start soon.