City of Calgary working to fix smell of ‘garbage juice’ affecting southeast residents

It’s been an unfortunate fact of life for residents of the southeast Calgary communities of New Brighton, Copperfield, Douglasdale, and others — the persistent smell of something… unnatural.

“Those areas are really close to a whole bunch of different city infrastructure and other odour-causing industries,” Eeplained Sharon Howland with the City of Calgary’s Waste & Recycling Services.

“We have agriculture to the east, we have some wetlands along Stoney Trail that become very salty and sulfuric and give off an odour.”

But lately, it’s the smell of garbage that’s been hanging out in residents’ noses, causing a lot of frustration.

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It’s called “garbage juice” — and the city believes the leachate system at the Shepard Waste Management Facility could be the culprit.

“It’s a real foul odour… it’s like a rotting grass, swamp-type smell and residents have called 311 a lot,” explained area councillor Mike Jamieson.

A year’s worth of data led the city to the source. And now, Howland says they’re trying to fix it.

“We said, ‘Look there’s a new source, you didn’t know about it, do something.’ And it should reduce odours in the southeast.”

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Howland says the mitigation work is nearly complete — and residents should notice a difference right away.