Signs saying “stop the stink” line the streets of the rural community of Richibucto, now part of the newly-amalgamated community of Beaurivage, N.B.
Residents like Gloria Arsenault say the Coastal Shell shell-drying plant creates a stench that causes their eyes, throats and lungs to burn each night.
The plant is only allowed to operate between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
“I am standing there in the middle of my living room holding a pillow and a blanket at 2 o’clock in the morning crying my eyes out, just sobbing like a baby. Because I’m thinking, where can I go to breathe?” Arsenault said, describing a recent sleepless night.
“It just suffocates you, you can’t catch your breath,” she said.
Kent Clean Air Action Committee (KCAAC) Chair JoAnn Robichaud lives half a kilometre away from the plant.
“I don’t only get the smell but I get the noise at night time. So you can’t open your windows at night,” she said.
Operations at the plant are temporarily on hold, after the provincial government ordered Coastal Shell to shut down operations on Thursday morning.
“The company was not meeting one of its conditions of the approval. An inspector from the department confirmed odours were being generated by the improper storage of shell waste on the company’s property,” read a statement from Environment and Climate Change minister Gary Crossman.
In a statement sent to Global News on Friday, Coastal Shell Products said they have developed an action plan to ensure the mistake isn’t repeated, and hope to resume operations quickly.
“Our concerns today are for the 10 (seafood) processing facilities in New Brunswick who, without Coastal Shell, will have a hard time finding a place to discard their processed shells. This could lead to layoffs in the industry which would be an extremely unfortunate outcome,” the statement read.
Maisie Rae McNaughton, who is in charge of communications for KCAAC, stressed that this has been a problem for the community since the plant opened in 2017.
“It’s absolutely horrendous. It smells like burning, rotting shells, mixed with burning wires,” she said.
“You can’t help but gag when it hits you, it’s just terrible,” she said.
McNaughton said the temporary reprieve from the smell she had on Thursday made her feel hopeful the community was being listened to.
“Everyday that this stays in operation, children are suffering, seniors are suffering, and our community’s mental health is suffering,” McNaughton said.