OSHAWA -- Officials at a local compost facility say a sickening smell that’s had north Oshawa residents holding their noses since December should be gone in the next two weeks.

Northwood Recycling and Energy, located on Thornton Road, opened a compost facility in December 2007, where green bin waste from the City of Toronto is processed.

Manager Micheal Dennis says the site’s biofilter -- a device that prevents odours from escaping -- isn’t working properly.

“We’re going to stop bringing in the organics from Toronto, then it should take about 16 days to process what we have here,” he said in an interview last Thursday. “After that, we’re going to take down the biofilter and re-engineer it to bring it into compliance with what the Ministry wants.”

Earlier this month, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) got involved in the situation after fielding complaints from residents, who say the smell is causing breathing problems, abdominal pain and nausea.

MOE officials met with Northwood owner Harvey (Skip) Ambrose on March 3 and instructed him to stop accepting waste and fix the biofilter.     Ministry spokeswoman Kate Jordan said the fix won’t be immediate, but she said she’s confident the ball is rolling now.

“They have a contract with the City (of Toronto) to accept their organic waste, so they had to contact them to make other arrangements first,” Ms. Jordan said Thursday. “We anticipate they will stop receiving waste by the end of this week.”

The MOE will keep monitoring the situation to ensure the proper repairs are done, she said, noting there are other “compliance tools” that can be used if problems continue.

Mr. Dennis said he is concerned about the problems the biofilter has caused, adding the company’s new indoor compost facility was meant to eliminate odour problems often associated with outdoor compost sites.

“We’re not here to cause discomfort to our neighbours,” he said. “If we can’t get this right, we won’t do it.”

That’s good news for local politicians who are dealing with dozens of calls from disgusted residents.

“I’m shocked that we have a facility where they’re pretty much boiling garbage, right in the middle of the City and in the fastest growing part of Durham Region,” said Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, whose residents in Ward 4 have been hit hard by the smell.

He is trying to organize a meeting with MOE officials, local politicians and the facility’s owner to ensure something similar won’t happen down the road.

If a long-term solution can’t be guaranteed, Coun. Marimpietri said he will look into drastic measures, like closing Oshawa’s borders to outside waste.

“Other places ask for their borders to be closed to others’ waste and it’s only right that we should have that option too,” he said.