Overview
- Work crews started cutting open the abandoned Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company tanks on Tuesday and have begun draining and treating the fermenting material on site.
- About 110 vats, each holding roughly 3,000 gallons, contain more than 900,000 litres of long-fermented fish sauce that produced a persistent, nauseating odour in the town.
- Contractor Sharp Management is mixing the liquid with peat moss to absorb and solidify the sludge, loading it into over 200 truckloads and placing it in a specially engineered 2,000-cubic-metre lined waste cell in Summerside for permanent sealing.
- The Newfoundland and Labrador government funded the roughly CAD 1.7–2.0 million cleanup while St. Mary's took a temporary CAD 198,000 loan that officials say will be reimbursed and the federal government has not contributed.
- Residents of the 300-person town, led by volunteer mayor Steve Ryan, say the removal offers relief after decades of campaigning, though officials caution the project, expected to finish by October, could face operational hiccups.