Farm odours come with the territory when you live in an agricultural area, but every once in a while there’s a stench that’s so pervasive, so nauseating, that it makes its way to the other side of a line that simply shouldn’t be crossed.
That's the situation we currently find ourselves in when it comes to Rimrock Feeders, a large feedlot just west of High River, which has caused many in the town and surrounding county to cry foul over persistent odours they say are intolerable.
Some might opine — and they definitely have during social media discourse on the matter — that if you don’t like the smells of the country, then you should move to the big city, but agricultural operators shouldn’t be given carte blanche, noses be damned.
Yes, farm smells must be tolerated if you choose to live in a rural setting, but when the stench gets so bad that you can’t open your windows during an unseasonably hot summer or even entertain the thought of sitting on the deck in the evening, then something has to be done to rectify the situation.
Thankfully, residents aren’t being written off as anti-farm whiners and told to lump it, but until the stench actually abates, any support voiced by various levels of government can only be viewed as lip service.
An official with the Natural Resources Conservation Board told local politicians last week that cleaning out the catch basins might do the trick, so hopefully work in that regard pays dividends, while at the very least, the arrival of cooler temperatures should help mitigate odours. Perhaps the $65-million-plus biodigester proposed for the site will be the golden ticket, although it’s still more than a year off.
Any solutions are still works in progress at this point, but what is certain is that residents shouldn’t be subjected to another summer where the enjoyment of their properties is dramatically compromised by a stench that just won’t quit.
