Council hopes joint effort will clear the Richmond air
There’s relief coming for Richmond residents who complained in recent months of bad smells coming from the Harvest Power compost facility.
At a council meeting Monday evening, Richmond city council approved the diversion of multi-family waste to a different facility, beginning on Jan. 1, 2017. Metro Vancouver has also decided to divert 35,000 tons per year from Vancouver and the North Shore Transfer Station away from the Harvest Power facility.
Richmond has also ordered Harvest Power to better manage its fumes within 90 days, and has approved $150,000 to pay for compliance officers and other measures to ensure the facility stays on track.
“It is a joint effort and all the parties are determined that they will get to the bottom of this,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie on Tuesday. He called the actions announced by Richmond “short-term relief,” but said all parties are working together toward a longterm solution.
Harvest Power operates a compost facility at No. 7 Road and Blundell, and is one of two such facilities in the region.
The Richmond facility collects most of Metro Vancouver’s food scraps, totalling 225,000 tonnes of green and food waste annually.
In recent years, the facility has been the subject of hundreds of complaints from residents as far away as Vancouver, New Westminster, Delta, Surrey and Burnaby over the smells emitted from the processing plant.
In recent months, Metro Vancouver, which is responsible for monitoring and ensuring air quality in the region, has received as many as 50 complaints per day.