Denis Coderre wants east-end animal rendering plant to stem its smells

The City of Montreal wants an animal rendering plant in Rivire-des-Prairies that has been the source of odour complaints to do more to control the smellit produces.

Mayor DenisCoderre, who is in running for re-election, held a news conference near the plant to announce the city is requesting twopermanent injunctions againstSanimax.

The first injunction alleges that some of the land the 60-year-old company operates on isn't zoned for such a use, and the second compels it to do more to control odours.

The animal rendering plant processes waste animal tissue, such as fat, transforms it into a range of byproducts, and sells them to different industries around the world.

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Residents have complained about the odour coming from the plant foryears.

Those complaints were publicized in May, when photos of meat and animal carcasses spilling out of a truck on its way to the plant surfaced on a citizen Facebookgroup concerned with Sanimax's presence in the community.

Sanimaxa company founded in 1939 outside Quebec City that now has plants in Quebec, the U.S. and Ontario responded at the time that it was investing in new equipment to help stop odours and control spills.

'It's not a pretty sight'

The company said the truck in the picture was owned by one of its suppliers, but that it would ask its suppliers to take measures to prevent overflows from happening.

"It's not a pretty sight, it's not good for the community," Coderre said of the spills Friday from a patch of grass opposite a residential development.

"I may be running for re-election, but Iam the mayor of Montreal and my role is to take decisions."

Eric Caputo, the Montreal general managerfor Sanimax,said the company has been working to stem smells andcomplaints from neighbours went down over the summer.

"All our executives, our owners, work just beside the plant, so you can be sure that they want our facility to smell very good," Caputotold CBC Friday, noting the company's head office sits next to theRivire-des-Prairiesplant.

"We want to be good citizens, which we are working on for the last 60 years."

4 to 5 spills per year

He said measures to prevent spills and odours includechanging tarps on truck trailers,replacing conveyors, and different types ofpumps.

Caputo said there were between four and five spills a year, out of the 20,000 delivery trucks travelling to the plant per year and the company is responsible for the cleanup.

Borough mayor forRivire-des-PrairiesPointe-aux-Trembles, Chantal Rouleau, who is running for re-election under the quipe Denis Coderrebanner,said many of the trucks don't have the necessary covers on their trailers to prevent spills.

"We tried a lot of things with them," she said, but no agreement was reached.

Coderre said the injunction would be filed in the next few days and Caputoconfirmed he hadn't received noticefrom the city yet.

'Hopefully the end is near'

Rivire-des-Prairies resident Theo Vecera, who started the community Facebook page about Sanimax, was at the announcement and said he was satisfied with the requestedinjunctions.

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"One word: finally. Finally, that our words are being taken seriously, that they're understanding the impact thatSanimax is having on our community," Vecera said afterward.

"Hopefully the end is near."

Sanimax processes about 1.3 million metric tons of raw material per year, according to a profile of the company in industry publication, Render Magazine.

The company's plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has also been a source of odour complaints. According to the Pensacola News Journal, residents there filed a lawsuit against Sanimax.

The two parties reached a settlement last June and Sanimax agreed to upgrade its odour control systems and set money aside for the affected residents.