Provincial officials will meet with St. Mary’s town council on Monday, after high winds tore the side of an abandoned fish sauce plant — but the town’s mayor is also calling on the federal government for help.
“The Coast Guard should be here on site and this should be contained,” said Mayor Steve Ryan. “This is lobster grounds, crab grounds, cod grounds. This got to be protected.”
After one side of the building tore off in high winds overnight Friday into Saturday, Ryan says 110 vats of rotting fish sauce are now exposed to the elements.
Ryan has been waiting for help from the federal government to remove the building, since it was discovered in 2016 that ‘acutely lethal’ effluent was flowing into the ocean and killing fish.
The building is only about 50 feet from the ocean, and with more high winds forecasted for Monday, Ryan is concerned that the old fish sauce could leak into the ocean again.
Ryan also says a residence behind the building will be evacuated on Monday, as he worries the winds could be high enough to lift the plant’s roof. The town’s Deputy Mayor, Yvonne Bishop, warns others in the area should be ready to leave if winds pick up significantly.
“If that roof goes off, it is exposed. Everything is exposed,” Bishop said.
Bishop also wants the Coast Guard to provide support.
“Federal has really stepped back, they never put their foot in, our minister… should be here,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bishop says the town has been dealing with the plant’s “stench” for years.
“It’s just a fumigating smell of rotten compost of fish and it’s constant,” she said. “You wouldn’t want to live next to it.”
Provincial officials are set to meet with the town’s council on Monday, said Department of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change director of communications, Michelle Hunt-Grouchy, in a statement to CBC.
She says they will “focus on assessment, next steps, and ensuring the safety and well being of residents as decisions are made.”
Hunt-Grouchy also says the issue is a priority for the province, and that multiple departments have been discussing how to ensure “the safe and secure disposal of the organic waste” and how to “mitigate any associated risks.”
Meanwhile, the area’s MHA, liberal Sherry Gambin-Walsh, wrote in a statement to CBC on Saturday that removing the plant was a priority for the former Liberal government.
But, Gambin-Walsh says the windstorm has made the situation even more urgent.
“I encourage residents to remain alert and be prepared in the event an evacuation order is issued by emergency officials,” she wrote.
CBC has emailed Avalon MP Paul Connors requesting an interview, as well as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, requesting an interview with Federal Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson.
As of Monday morning, Thompson’s Press Secretary Ira Khedkar says they are working on a response.
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