Summerside stinky seaweed issue eased by frequent removal

Phase one of a plan to solve the problem of a stench on the Summerside waterfront is seeing some success. Phase two will turn that stink into dollars.

For the last decade the P.E.I. city has been dealing with seaweed piling up on its waterfront. When it rots it releases a horrible smell.

Last fall Summerside began a study, with partner Island Water Technologies, to see how their stinky seaweed problem could be fixed.

• Summerside extends seaweed stink study

The main idea is to turn the seaweed into something the city can sell, like liquid fertilizer or biofuel. The second part of that study was presented council Tuesday night. It started with good news: odour complaints this summer were down.

Director of Community Services J.P. Desrosiers said the city was more proactive this year in getting rid of the seaweed before it piled up and started to smell.

"More resources to do more frequent hauling," said Desrosiers.

"Instead of allowing the biomass to accumulate on the shorefront, as soon as we'd see a small accumulation we'd be on the shorefront removing asap."

In the future the city would like to build some kind of processing plant for the seaweed, but there's more work to be done.

"The next step to this whole program is obviously to get scientific validation that this product could be something that could be taken to market," said Desrosiers.

Currently the data needed for that validation is being evaluated.

If the results are positive, the city would then move forward in developing a business with the hopes of a product by spring 2016.