Bay St. George residents gathered this morning to protest the dumping of waste from recent salmon die-offs in Bay St. George South.
Mowi confirmed that it had suffered two major die-offs in recent months, one involving ISA in late August / early September, and another which was confirmed last week caused by a sea-lice infestation.
Sharon Piccott says up to 10 tractor trailer loads of waste is being trucked to the anaerobic digestor in the area, and depending on the direction of the wind, the smell is putrid and overwhelming.
“It’d make you want to throw up” she says. “We can’t breathe, we can’t go outside, like people have moved away from the area because they don’t have a quality of life here anymore.
She says the only approved areas for waste disposal is the fish plant at Burgeo and the site at Bay St. George South. She told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly that they’ve been told that waste from the September die-off will continue to be trucked to the area through to the end of November, and now they have another die-off to contend with.
She says residents are at their wit’s end.
“Everybody in environment and government and these agencies are ignoring our concerns. We went through this, and went public in 2019. The department of environment did nothing, nothing to address our concerns and I suggest that what’s happening here now is worse than 2019.”
