Odour Concerns

The sewage treatment Plant treats sewage for all of St. Thomas and surrounding areas which is 40,000+ residents.  There will always be some outdoor associated with the treatment of raw sewage.  Weather and wind direction have a major impact when odours may be detected from various local sources.

Yes.  Other common odour sources include local area farms spreading manure, odours from local area landfills, and garbage/compost collection can also be detected from time to time.

Odour from a sewage treatment plant is normal and unavoidable.  Any received reports of odour are forwarded from the St. Thomas Customer Service Request System to the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant for evaluation.  City staff document the report and survey the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant often including the street address where the report was received in order to document any direct sources of odour.  City staff are then required by law to forward any complaints to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for their records.

The Wastewater Pollution Control Plant is a 200 million dollar publicly owned (by the City of St. Thomas) and operated complex asset that serves all the sewage treatment needs of all 40,000 residents of St. Thomas an surrounding area.  The process requires a location close to a creek in order to discharge cleaned water.  The Wastewater Pollution Control Plant is already strategically located in a low area at the edge of the City near a water course where is has been located for over 100 years.

Daily activities are directed toward optimizing the operation of the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant and reducing odour.  This includes ongoing routine cleaning of the plant and technological innovations to reduce odours as much as possible.  City Staff consider various initiatives to improve odour control and report these to Council. Council approve numerous operating and capital improvements to mitigate odours. 

Sewage is produced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week all year long from 48,000 St. Thomas and area residents.  This equates to about 7 billion liters of raw sewage per year.  Sewage is full of dangerous microorganisms including viruses and bacteria and it must be fully treated using advanced technologies until is is clean water that can be returned to the creek.  In St. Thomas, the waste that is processed from the sewage is then converted into a Canadian certified fertilizer that can be purchased for farm use.