St. John's residents upset with sewage smell

People living on the south side of St. John's say they're fed up with a foul smell that's coming from the city's one-year-old sewage treatment plant.

"There are times you go out your door and if you don't have your hand over your face, you choke," said area resident Donna Hynes. "It's like you stuck your face in a toilet."

Hynes said she and her neighbours have been complaining about a horrible smell from the treatment plant since it began operating last summer but she said residents don't believe city officials are doing enough to help them.

"Everytime you smell it you think, 'is there anything going to be done about this?' or is this the way it's going to be?" said Eugene Snow, who also lives in the area.

City officials told CBC News Monday that the smell should disappear eventually when the bacteria the treatment plant uses to break down waste becomes fully mature.

"Hopefully when it happens the hydrogen sulfide, or rotten egg smell, will no longer be there and the gas that will be produced as part of the process will be methane, which we can burn off with our flare onsite," said Walt Mills, the city's chief engineer.

Hynes said Monday that no one from the city has given residents a clear timetable regarding when the stink from the $150,000,000 treatment facility will stop.

"They said the end of summer but they didn't say which summer," she joked.