'You could taste it': Residents of Sask. town upset about putrid smell from waste lagoon

There’s something in the air in Kindersley and residents want the town to deal with it.

Some in the community, located about two hours southwest of Saskatoon, say the smell of the sewage lagoon on the outskirts of town is overwhelming.

 “Even though you have all your windows closed and the doors closed, it’s still coming in; seeping in,” June Nargang, told CTV News.

Nargang has lived in the area most of her life, but this year is different.

“You could taste it and smell it and the whole lane is gray,“ she says.

She says the stench is impacting her lung condition.

“It was so strong that my COPD, I couldn’t actually breathe and at night, for three nights, I was afraid to go to sleep. That’s how bad it was.”

Debbie Tebokkel lives about three kilometres from the lagoon and says the town council hasn’t been transparent with the issue and has done little to fix it.

“It smells like feces. It comes and it goes with the wind. There’s no rhyme or reason [to] how strong it is or how long it goes, and it’s gross. I just think that should’ve been rectified,” Tebokkel said.

Both women say the town attempted to address the smelly lagoon a few years ago.

“Rectifying the lagoon smell was a $6 million project that was supposed to be done and it wasn’t done properly,“ according to Tebokkel.

The lagoon has been a contentious topic of conversation on Kindersley social media sites, with residents asking if the smell will be around all summer, and why nothing has been done to fix it.

The town of Kindersley declined an on-camera interview, but offered a statement explaining why the lagoon smells.

“Why do we get an odor from the lagoon from time to time? An aerated lagoon, regardless of what community it may be in, will have odors,” the statement said.

“The lagoon is an open body of wastewater and though we are treating the water, many things contribute to odors.”

The statement said the odour worsens during spring thaw, if the water level drop the newly-exposed wet banks will produce a smell, and changing wind direction will also affect it.

Regardless of the explanations, the residents we spoke to want to enjoy the summer outdoors or want to open their windows without getting a nose full of waste odor from the lagoon.