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The Ontario government has ordered the city to put a lid on the odour coming from a sewage pumping station in Richmond village.
The Ministry of the Environment sent the city a provincial officer order last week because of complaints they received from village residents in January, April and most recently on Aug. 10.
In a memo to councillors, Dixon Weir, the city’s general manager of environmental services, said city workers have responded to each complaint but haven’t been able to figure out the cause of the problem.
“The investigations to date have not identified any particular source, cause or explanation for the complaint of odour,” said Weir.
The city has until the end of January to fix the problem.
The ministry has ordered the city to confirm by Nov. 9 that it has hired a qualified consultant specializing in odour control to assess the situation.
By Jan. 29, the ministry wants a report “indicating all necessary modifications, changes or enhancements to the existing odour control systems in order to prevent future complaints.”
In June, councillors learned that a village resident had dropped his “private prosecution” against the city in relation to alleged odour complaints from the pumping station, but the ministry is reviewing the complaints under the Environmental Protection Act.
The corrosion of two bolts was to blame for a sewage leak that was discovered in March near the pumping station.
The bolts held a coupling in place, which acted as a transition pipe between two other sewage pipes. When the bolts failed, it pulled the joint apart, which allowed raw sewage to spill into the ground, causing a small sinkhole in the shoulder of the roadway along Eagleson Rd. at Perth St.