TransAqua eyes expansion of Moncton compost facility as it tackles north end smell

TransAqua is looking to expand its Moncton sewage composting operation as it addresses a pungent smell in the city's north end neighbourhood.

The utility processes sewage from greater Moncton at a plant along the Petitcodiac River. "Biosolids" removed from the wastewater are trucked to its facility in Moncton, where it's stored outside for about a year while composting.

After complaints about a smell that wafts over nearby residential areas, the province, which regulates air quality, asked TransAqua to address the issue.

The utility said it will take a series of short-term and long-term measures that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement.

On Thursday, its board also directed staff to include money in its next budget to expand the capacity of the site to address an increase in the volume of material stored there.

"What we've been doing since 2021 is we've been making the piles a bit higher, a bit bigger, than we really should be," Kevin Rice, TransAqua's general manager, said in an interview. 

"So sometimes when we try to cover them, it's a bit of a challenge because they weren't made to cover piles that big."

Expanding the capacity was one of the steps recommended in a report for TransAqua by consulting firm CBCL Ltd. that looked at the operations of the site.

TransAqua released the report to media this week as it outlined the steps it has told the province it will take to address the smell.

Wastewater plant upgrade led to more material

The report says process changes at TransAqua's wastewater plant in Riverview led to more material being sent for composting.

The $90 million upgrade, largely finished at the end of 2020, was meant to improve Petitcodiac River water quality.

The average wet mass of biosolids went from 921 tonnes per month in 2020, to 1,367 tonnes per month in 2021 and 1,357 so far this year.

Biosolids from the wastewater plant are trucked to the compost site four times per week and mixed with bark and wood chips and stored on three pads with built-in blowers that aerate the material.

The board decision last week calls for building a fourth pad and retrofitting the existing ones with a new design. Rice said it's work that will likely cost more than $1 million.

Covers are placed on the piles for several weeks to control the smell, if there are enough covers available. The material remains for about a year, turned occasionally, before it's ready to be distributed as compost.

The CBCL report says complaints last year coincided with a time that covers were "inaccessible" and couldn't be used on the piles because of an increase in volume of material at the site.

Among the steps TransAqua has told the province it will take to reduce the smell is to buy more covers.

Rice said two have been ordered, at a cost of about $217,000 each, and are expected to arrive in 16 to 20 weeks.

TransAqua will also truck biosolids to other approved disposal sites if its compost operation is at capacity.

Yet another step will be to not turn the piles when the wind is blowing toward residential areas. 

A new weather station costing about $3,000 will replace an existing one that wasn't functioning properly, Rice said.

A new "fogging" system that cost about $25,000 will be installed this week. It will spray mist downwind of the piles to try to reduce odour leaving the site.

Moncton Deputy Mayor Bryan Butler says he opposes expansion until the existing smell is dealt with. 

"If this fogging works and the covers work and everything else works, that's a whole different situation," Butler said in an interview Monday. 

"But until we get what we have there now under control, I wouldn't support anything."

CBC News requested an interview with the province's Environment Department about the steps TransAqua has committed to make. No interview was provided. 

Instead, spokesperson Vicky Lutes issued a brief statement saying the province is monitoring implementation of the plan. 

Rice said he believes there are other sources of foul odours in the north end, and even if TransAqua relocated, there would still be complaints.

He said places like Organigram's cannabis production plant has a distinct smell, and there's also sometimes a smell of rotting garbage different from a sewage smell. 

The province has previously said it determined Rayan Environmental Solutions could be a source of a smell in the north end, but "of different nature" than the one from TransAqua.

The CBCL report includes a section highlighting how residential development has increased since the compost site was constructed in 2005.

The report says there were about 20 to 25 homes and four or five commercial operations within two kilometres at the time. By 2022, that increased to about 300 homes, a school, and 20 businesses. 

"The odour issue has been reported within the last two years," the report states. "Thus, the development toward the [composting site] is not likely the root cause of the complaints."

It suggests the city should consider avoiding allowing more development in the area.