City Councillor Responds to Concerns Surrounding Persistent Odour Issues at Two Organic Waste Facilities in London

640Toronto.com
Nov. 16, 2016

Calls for the city of London to step up to the plate and deal with the unpleasant smell emanating from two organic waste facilities south of the 401 have been heard.

Last Thursday, residents living in the area held a meeting and promised to take action if the city fails to address persistent odour issues at Orgaworld and StormFisher.

Councillor Harold Usher spoke with AM980 and says they will be investigating.

“One of the things we’re going to do right now is ask our staff to give us a complete report on this situation over the years, because there has been disciplinary action that has been taken by the provincial ministry against these companies, they’ve charged them a few times, particularly Orgaworld.”

A letter will be sent to the Planning and Environment committee so this can be addressed at their next meeting on Monday, November 28th.

“And what they’re going to ask civic administration to do is to report back at a future meeting with an update with respect to what measures have been taken, and could be undertaken to address the impact,” Usher said. “I think it’s come to a time now where we may need to take some drastic action.”

Allan Tipping, who lives within a kilometre of Orgaworld had said during last week’s meeting that they’re considering legal action, withholding their property taxes, or organizing picket lines outside of the businesses if the city doesn’t address the issue.

“We’d like the city to stand up and say, ‘look, we’ve got millions of taxes potentially out here, we’re collecting $100,000 from these facilities, or just over, it’s time for them to leave the city,” said Tipping.

StormFisher opened six years ago, while Orgaworld has been operating in south London since 2007. Tipping said they tried to prevent Orgaworld from setting up shop so close to a residential area.

“There were actually letters sent to the city from the local Ministry, from other people, from us with petitions, asking that the city do not allow these facilities to go in because of track records in other communities with these facilities causing these major odours.”

Orgaworld, a $25 million dollar facility on Wellington Road South near Dingman takes in green-bin waste from Toronto, Vaughan and St. Thomas and was fined $45,000 in 2012 for not following rules to reduce and control odours, and was fined $250,000 dollars in 2014 for odour emissions.

Orgaworld currently faces 10 charges that were laid this past July relating to odour emissions, and failing to comply with a condition of an Environmental Compliance Approval.

Residents have given the city until next March to address their concerns.