Summerside extends seaweed stink study

Summerside city council is extending a study it hopes will solve the city's problem of foul-smelling seaweed.

The P.E.I. city has been trying to find a solution formore than a decadeto the seaweed problem, where tonnes of vegetation gathers ona beach.In the past the city has cleaned up and cartedaway as much as 10 truckloads of seaweed a day.

Last fall Island Water Technologies began a study to find the cause of the odour problem and how it could be fixed. Tuesday night council approved an additional $12,375to continue with phase two of the study.

JP Desrosiers,the director of community services for the city of Summerside, said the research has had promising results so far, but more work needs to be done to find a solution.

"What we've uncovered is there's more than one potential issue or causative agent with the odours," said Derosiers.

"Let's try and determine exactly what those are, when the peak periods are that the odour is occurring. Is there correlation between accumulation, is there a correlation between tides, wind, weather, all of those factors, and try to get a better sense of how we can properly deal with it as well."

Before this extension the study had already cost the city $18,000. Phase two should take about six months to complete.