Article content

Many Edmontonians took to Twitter on Tuesday to complain about a stinky smell blanketing the city.

“Seriously South Edmonton Common! Why do you smell like a giant pile of elephant poo??” wrote Twitter user @NatashaChiam.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or The question on everyone's mind: Why does Edmonton smell like poop? Back to video

“It’s the whole city, as far as I can tell! Incredibly rank in the SE of #yeg as well,” Helen Scarlett said, in response.

As it turns out, the smell may have been caused by farmers using manure on their crops after harvest.

“Manure-spreading is an allowable practice and it is something that is done more at this time of year after the seasonal crop is taken off,” said Humphrey Banack from the Alberta Federation of Agriculture. The manure can be used as a fertilizer since it has dense nutritional value and helps to restore the soil by spring. According to Banack, we shouldn’t worry about the smell continuing.

“It won’t be around very much longer, usually lasts half a day. It’s because it’s such a windy day but there are no health issues with it,” said Bannack.

CTV meteorologist Josh Classen confirmed today’s 20-30 kilometre winds could have played a role in the spread of the smell.

“Well the wind was west-north-west most of the day so I guess it could have spread this afternoon from west-north of the city.”

Thursday’s winds are forecast to be blowing from west-north-west again, however, they are not expected to be as strong.