Proposed hog plant will be odourless: OlyWest

The next round in the OlyWest hog plant debate began Wednesday in Winnipeg.

The company planning to open a hog rendering plant in a St. Boniface industrial park made its case to Winnipeggers in an open house Wednesday afternoon.

There, officials shared the results of an environmental impact study of their proposed plant, including information about how they will pretreat and clean waste water and air.

"OlyWest will be a clean and controlled facility," OlyWest spokesman Guy Baudry said in a statement Wednesday.

OlyWest claims that the plant will have virtually no odour detectable by nearby residents. Officials said they double-checked the system and are installing an $8-million odour scrubber.

Environmental consultant John Donetz of Earth Tech, the company OlyWest hired to conduct the assessment, said the latest technology will scrub away any noticable smell from the proposed hog plant.

"You'd have to get probably within 200, 300 metres of the plant before you could notice the smell," Donetz said.

Baudry also said the plant will use "protein recycling" to "reclaim as many products as possible."

He added that food processing will be kept separate from byproduct production, and both will be regulated by federal health inspectors and OlyWest staff.

Opposition from residents, businesses

Outside OlyWest's open house Wednesday, Winnipeg resident Bob Chaput put up a sign clearly displaying his opinion of the OlyWest proposal.

"It says, 'mega pigs, mega stink, mega poop, mega noise,'" Chaput said.

The project has been met with considerable opposition from some St. Boniface area businesses and residents. They have raised concerns about the plant's possible effect on air and water quality, traffic flow and property values in the area.

Baudry restated the company's position that it will only proceed if it meets all needed requirements.

"OlyWest will only invest in this initiative if it is safe, environmentally responsible, and operates under the principles of good corporate citizenship," Baudry said in the statement.