Rotten fish sauce that has long stunk up a small Canadian town is finally being removed

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The townspeople of St. Mary’s can breathe a sigh of relief. They are finally getting rid of the foul smell of rotten fish that has for years — when the wind blows their way — wafted over their tiny community in Canada’s easternmost province.

And the culprit for the unpleasant odor that has vexed the picturesque town of about 300 people in Newfoundland and Labrador?

About 110 tanks that were left behind — each holding 3,000 gallons of fermented fish sauce — when the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company was abandoned more than 20 years ago.

The place was left to ruin: windows got broken, the roof blew off, a January storm knocked out a wall. The sauce kept on fermenting as the bacteria did their job — and the townspeople could smell it.

St. Mary’s volunteer mayor, Steve Ryan, says it’s hard to describe just how bad the smell was.

“The worst rotted fish you ever smelled in your lifetime, times 100,” he told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday.

PHOTOS: Rotten fish sauce that has long stunk up a small Canadian town is finally being removed

As crews kicked off a major cleanup operation at the dilapidated plant this week, Ryan watched with mixed feelings.

“It’s a big relief,” he said, describing the town’s lengthy “crusade” to get the provincial government to fund the cleanup. The federal government has not contributed to the cost, he added.

“That kind of makes me a little bit mad,” said Ryan, who had briefly worked at the factory after graduating from high school in 1990. “Every door we came to was just closed in our face. … They forgot about us.”

Over the next few months, workers will drain the vats of left-behind fluid and mix it with peat moss, which will absorb the liquid, he said.

Trucks with giant hoses will then suck up the material and transport it to a pit that has been dug out over three weeks and lined with high-density polyethylene used in landfills. At the end, the pit will be covered with topsoil.

Glenn Sharp, owner of Sharp Management, the company overseeing the task, called it a “unique job.”

“This is a special waste,” he said. “This does not fall under any of the standard classifications.”

Ryan said the project costs $1.21 million. The community had to take out a hefty loan of 198,000 Canadian dollars or $140,973 it has to contribute, though the town will get the money back at a later date.

He hopes that when it’s all over, the memory of the foul smell will fade.

“We’re such a small town and we were left on our own,” he said. “For so many years nobody had our backs.”

But we “kept fighting and fighting,” he added, “because we knew we were right in what we were fighting for.”