Summerside's seaweed won't go away

Summerside is trying to figure out what to do with tonnes of seaweed that washes onto the new local beach each day. It is looking for a way to dispose of the stinky mess.

Every morning crews clean up the mess, filling trucks with the seaweed. "Sometimes we get up to ten loads a day, but other days depending on the winds and tides, we could only get up to two, but we're upwards of a thousand loads that's a lot of seaweed," says Joanne Corkum of the City of Summerside.

So far the city has been able to sell the seaweed to local farmers who use it as fertilizer.

Summerside hopes to convince the Island Waste Management Corporation to take the slippery stuff for free. However, the CEO of the corporation says the city will have to pay the usual $80 per tonne fee.

"It's not material that we require in the facility. We already get grade A compost. The seaweed itself as I understand it would be fairly salty, and the soluble salt content of finished compost is something we watch for," explains Myers.

The City of Summerside is also considering contracting the daily seaweed sweep out. That would mean developing a market for the seaweed on a long-term basis.

The city has spent millions trying to deal with the problem of seaweed, and the stench it left over parts of the city.