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Gatineau councillor Yvon Boucher has resigned from the city’s economic development commission to protest a proposed septic waste treatment plant he says will stink enough to drive people away from Gatineau Airport and a nearby industrial park.
Mr. Boucher, whose Riviere-Blanche ward includes the airport, said he was never informed about a zoning change that permits a private septic waste treatment plant near the airport, although city council approved the change as part of a new city official plan in October 2005.
Entrepreneurs Martin Gascon and Maurice Charlebois plan to buy city property and build a 295-square-metre plant to dehydrate septic tank sludge from rural communities near Gatineau and convert it into fertilizer. The plant would be less than a kilometre from the nearest houses and the airport.
“The city has a septic waste treatment plant in my ward on the east end of Notre Dame Street,” Mr. Boucher said. “The smell was terrible at the city plant, so we had to spend $17 million to increase its capacity and reduce the odour by 75 to 80 per cent.”
Mr. Boucher said sewage treatment is a municipal responsibility, not something for private business.
“I think this new plant will scrap the city’s industrial park and my ward and I was the last one to know about it. It will probably scrap Masson-Angers ward because of the stink.”
Veronique Gendron, a spokeswoman for the economic development corporation, said staff had no obligation to consult Mr. Boucher or nearby residents and businesses because the city’s new official plan allows waste treatment plants near the airport.
“We knew about that project because we are in charge of selling city land,” Ms. Gendron said. “The usual process is to discuss new projects with the developers and when they are ready to present the city with an offer to purchase the land, then we advise the councillors and the city.
“It is normal that Mr. Boucher didn’t know about this project earlier. He is a member of the economic development corporation, but we don’t keep our members informed about every project until they are ready.”
Ms. Gendron said the plant has been approved by the Quebec Ministry of Environment. She added there will be no stink because the owners will have to keep it odour-free to remain on the site.
Mathieu Larocque, a spokes-man for Mayor Marc Bureau, said city council has not discussed the project or agreed to sell the land yet. Mr. Larocque said Gatineau’s septic waste treatment plant is at full capacity and if the problem is ignored, the city will be forced to spend millions to expand the plant.
“This solution doesn’t cost the city a penny and it can treat the waste that the city can’t treat,” Mr. Larocque said. “Using the land for a septic waste treatment plant won’t discourage investment because the park has already been identified for such uses.
City council is to discuss the treatment plant on Sept. 12.