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Tracking source of stink in south London will require 24-7 high-tech surveillance

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London, Ont. -

City council will consider spending $303,990 to participate in a first-of-its-kind monitoring network to detect and predict the periodic rotten odour in neighbourhoods south of Highway 401.

“We will now have a technology that will be sniffing 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” explains Jay Stanford, director of Climate Change, Environment and Solid Waste.

Stanford recommends adding City Hall’s W12A landfill to a new detection network for three years.

Odour sensors and a new weather station would be positioned around the perimeter of the landfill to detect hydrogen sulphide, a foul smelling gas.

“(We’ll be) able to predict and reduce odours at the W12A landfill site,” says Stanford.

The detection network includes participation by the StormFisher Environmental biofuel plant, the Convertus composting facility, and the City of Toronto’s Green Lane landfill.

A decade of failed attempts by City Hall and the province to snuff out the stink, however, has Brockley resident Allan Tipping skeptical of the latest plan.

“I live five kilometres from W12A and I smell it here,” says Tipping.

He believes City Hall is simply trying to satisfy provincial concerns about expanding the landfill.

“They have to prove that they are protecting the environment around (the W12A landfill),” he adds. “This doesn’t really protect it, but it gives (City Hall) technical data to say this wasn’t our smell.”

The city is undertaking an environmental assessment to extend the lifespan of the landfill by 25 years (to 2049) and increase the height by 26 metres.

Stanford asserts the intent of the monitoring network is to build on recent success reducing odour complaints.

“This has been one of our best years ever, the technology we are bringing in will help us better understand why.”

Though he doubts the technology’s effectiveness, Tipping hopes to be nearing the end of a decade of odour-spoiling outdoor activities.

This summer he’s only called in two or three odour complaints to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

“I’m actually enjoying my summer here. My pool has been open. People are coming over again.”

If approved by council later this summer, the detection system will begin operating in October.

All current odour enforcement and abatement activities in south London will continue in the area.

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