Richmond residents have long wanted City Hall to wake up and smell the stink emanating from the community's pumping station.
And now the Ontario government agrees, having recently ordered the City of Ottawa to eliminate the stench by January.
The saga began 13 years ago when the former Ottawa-Carleton regional government decided a pipeline through Richmond to Ottawa would solve a sewage problem in nearby Munster.
The 11-kilometre, $30-million line takes between one and three days to move sewage from 1,800 homes in Richmond and Munster. Residents are concerned the projected 2000-home Mattamy development will make matters worse.
"You step on the front porch, you gag, (and) you go back inside," said Bruce Webster of the Richmond Village Association, who lives next door to the pumping station.
"You can't predict when it will smell. It might smell this morning and it might not smell for another two weeks. Or it might smell for two days."
Dawn Asselstine tried to sell her house because of the stench but found no buyers.
"It's probably like living in an outhouse," she told CTV Ottawa. "When it permeates the house that's what it smells like.
"It's been five years of fumbling with this and hoping that this is the answer, and spending lots of taxpayers' money on trying to figure out what the problem is."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Jonathan Rotondo
