Article content

Something is still rotten in the city of Edmonton.

More than 7,000 complaints about sewer odours have been filed since 2009, says a new city report that identifies certain hot spots known to wrinkle noses.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or City plans sewer-odour strategy after thousands of complaints Back to video

Monty Nelson lives in south Edmonton and has dealt with drifting putrid odours for the past decade.

“It smells like rotten eggs,” he said, noting that the epicentre of the area’s fetid smell is an intersection at 34 Avenue and 106 Street. “It’s awful … you can’t wait for that light to turn green.”

Nelson, vice-president of the Ermineskin Community League, described the sewer odour as a chronic issue that has left residents feeling neglected.

“The smell is so bad it can’t be fixed soon enough.”

It’s an issue city staff are taking seriously, said Todd Wyman, director of network integration.

There are a variety of causes for the unpleasant odours that plague certain city streets. This includes the long distance sewage must travel through pipes in older parts of the city and low levels of wastewater flow, said the report slated for the city’s utility committee next Friday.

The concentration of sewage as well as the drop structure of pipelines are also factors, Wyman added.

“Think of it as a waterfall … it does aerate, it does create turbulence,” he said, noting that drops in pipes churn up the sewage and release scent. “It is a lot (about) our trunk systems and how the flow of sewage actually makes its way from the outskirts of the city to the Gold Bar wastewater treatment plant.”