New Brunswick seafood plant shutting down after repeated complaints about unbearable stench

A shellfish waste drying plant that has been at the centre of a year and a half long fight to “Stop the stink” in a small southeastern New Brunswick town has shut down.

Coastal Shell Products suspended its operations this weekend, laying off 20 staff owing to what the company says are provincial government limitations that have made it financially impossible to continue.

For the last two years, the province has restricted the company from running its propane-burning dryer during the day after complaints from residents about the putrid smell that some said was ruining their lives in the Acadian fishing town of Beaurivage, formerly Richibucto.

With the factory located several hundred metres from tidy waterfront homes, low-income housing, an elementary school and a seniors’ complex, the stench that emanated from it prevented some from going outside, opening their windows or hanging out laundry. The nearby school even had a contingency plan to evacuate in case the smell, described by many as a mix of rotten lobster shells and burning wire, became overwhelming.

The citizen-led Kent Clean Air Action Committee launched a relentless “Stop the stink” campaign in August, 2022, holding rallies, starting a court action for a judicial review, and eventually gaining the support of Liberal Opposition Leader Susan Holt to demand the province pull the plant’s permit or force it to move.

Coastal Shell manager Jamie Goguen said in an interview that he tried to work with the provincial and federal governments to implement an odour mitigation plan over the last year and a half, spending $250,000 on an engineering design for new equipment while operating at a loss of $1.2-million. The final straw came last month when the company was denied $3-million from the Atlantic Fisheries Fund – a joint federal and provincial program that supports the seafood industry – to buy odour eliminating equipment.

Mr. Goguen said, after being led to believe government supported the business, it left the company with no choice but to fold. He said the province proposed expanding the plant’s operating hours after school lets out for summer, but also added more restrictions that made it financially unfeasible.

“It was a very difficult decision,” he said.

“The biggest losers here are going to be the shellfish industry, who are now responsible for their own waste management, and the environment.”

Mr. Goguen said that Coastal Shell diverted thousands of tons of waste from landfills and has reduced methane emissions.

The closing of the plant threw a curveball at the lobster industry this past weekend when it learned the news, said Nat Richard, executive director of the Lobster Processors Association. Southeastern New Brunswick is the linchpin of lobster processing in the province, and he says the spring lobster season is “absolutely critical” for the industry.

“The timing is challenging in the sense that we literally have thousands of harvesters in New Brunswick and elsewhere, and plant workers that depend on us to continue operating these plants and we do need to have an outlet for shell waste,” said Mr. Richard.

But, he added, owing to the reduced operating hours at Coastal Shell, only five or six lobster processing plants are affected. (Previously, 10 processors relied on the company to pick up their waste.) Since then, he and others have been scrambling to find alternate spots in the province to send the lobster shells, including large-scale industrial compost sites, and to secure transport to get them there.

For others, especially those in the town of Beaurivage, the shutdown was cause for celebration. Maisie McNaughton, a lobster harvester and founder of the “Stop the stink” campaign, said locals can now take a deep breath of fresh air.

“It has been a living and breathing nightmare for eight years,” she said.

“To be forced every night to basically pray that the wind wasn’t going to come in your direction – knowing that if it goes somewhere else, it’s just hitting one of your friends or neighbours – it’s just horrible.”

As for the new problem the shutdown poses for lobster processors, Ms. McNaughton said it will take some creative planning in the month ahead to ensure no interruption to the operation of processors. “The industry has survived for 100 years. I think that it will be able to able to survive Coastal Shell Products.”