High River residents and people living west of the town are still getting to smell some pretty rank odours from time to time.

They've been coming from Rimrock Feeders.

Jennifer Washington says she complained to the Natural Resources Conservation Board on July 10 and was told they'd received 16 complaint calls that night and that Rimrock Feeders had been "grandfathered" in under the previous owners' Western Feedlots agreement to operate and they are allowed the manure equivalent of 35,000 cows.

"They're within their capacity, by the sounds of it they're at their top and then they're saying there are several factors contributing to what's happening, again they're not doing anything wrong," she says.

She was told by the representative at the NRCB that Rimrock had been under capacity and then COVID hit reducing operations and just now they've returned to full capacity.

Washington, who lives in the northwest part of High River, and is a relative newcomer to the town, says she's talked to a number of people who've told her the smell has never been as bad as it's been this year.

"Summers are so short and if I can only go out half of the days and enjoy, I mean High River is beautiful, I think it's a lovely, lovely town, I love the subdivisions, I love how they're all laid out I love the parks systems, the trail systems and if I can only go out half the time I'm quite unhappy," Washington says.

Since Rimrock has been allowed to follow the rules Western Feedlot operated under she asked if it was worth complaining and the NRCB representative assured her it was because the more complaints they get the more leverage they have to act.

The NRCB Confined Feeding Operations 24-Hour Complaint Hotline is 1-866-383-6722. Their website is: 
https://www.nrcb.ca/confined-feeding-operations/compliance-enforcement/complaints

You can also contact Alberta Environment at 1-800-222-6574.

For non-emergency enquiries, their number is 1-877-944-0313.