Greensville stinks! You wouldn't get this impression when traveling through this beautiful area, but roll down your car window and you'll learn that this is quite literally the case with the onslaught of odour problems from the Rothsay/Maple Leaf rendering plant on Highway 5.

But odour is not the only problem — water quality impacts are also an issue with this facility as its treated wastewater is discharged into a spring-fed wetland which drains into a tributary of Spencer Creek. This particular tributary is dammed up every spring in order to serve as a stocked trout pond for recreational fishers to use at the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority's Christie Conservation Area during the summer months.

Concerned citizens living in Greensville are organizing to determine what can be done to ensure that Rothsay/Maple Leaf addresses its odour problems and does not cause any environmental impacts through its discharges to the Spencer Creek watershed.

To this end, a great deal of organizing is happening right now, spearheaded by Greensville resident Peter Turkstra. Through several community meetings, working committees on human health, odour, and water have been established. The group Greensville Residents Against Pollution, established many years ago to fight the proposal to make the old Steetley quarry a landfill, has offered to sponsor these new efforts by allowing the committees to fall under the structural umbrella of GASP.

Environment Hamilton is playing a part by helping citizens to navigate their way around the provincial certificates of approval that guide the operation of this plant.

In addition, the facility has been issued numerous provincial orders over the past two years for non-compliance. We are helping with a review of these orders in an effort to determine what Rothsay/Maple Leaf's responsibilities are with respect to operating in an environmentally friendly manner and to highlight the shortcomings of the company's present approach.

Our help has included advising citizens of their rights and suggesting associated strategies to ensure that both the company and regulators take action that is in the public's best interests.

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