Canadian Town to Finally Rid Itself of Unbearable Smell

One Canadian town's decades-long smelly nightmare is nearing its conclusion. Workers in St. Mary's, Newfoundland, on Tuesday began clearing out roughly 250,000 gallons of long-rotting fish sauce left behind in 110 tanks when the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company plant ceased operations in the early 2000s. After years of fighting the province to foot the cleanup bill to eliminate the sauce and its associated pervasive stench, the government finally agreed last year to set aside $1.4 million USD for that purpose.

The CBC reports workers will slice open the tanks and mix the fermented sauce with peat moss. The resulting mixture will be hauled to a specialized landfill about two hours away in Sunnyside, where officials insist the waste will be sealed tight—"like a Ziploc bag"—in a waste cell. The Canadian Press reports that as the first truckload was hauled off on Tuesday, Mayor Steve Ryan "teared up several times as he told reporters he could finally feel hope." The effort is expected to wrap up by October, but in the meantime, the head of the company overseeing the effort warns, "We expect the smell to get considerably worse as we open" the tanks.