Ontario company fined nearly $100K for spewing noxious cat litter fumes

Any cat owner would be hard-pressed to tell you which is worse: the smell of plain old cat excrement or the smell of cat excrement plus whatever overpowering perfume that litter companies employ to attempt to cover it up.

As sickening as that artificially “clean” kitty litter smell is at home, it can also be harmful to both you and the environment in large quantities — which is why one local producer was slapped with a fine of almost $100,000.

Mississauga-based mineral technologies company Normerica Inc. manufactures various types of pet goods out of its factory in nearby Brantford, Ontario, including a handful of different white label cat litters.

An additive in some of these litter products is a fragrance called, fittingly, Clean Burst, which gives them that characteristic nauseatingly strong aroma.

And while a fresh scent is often desirable, it isn’t when it is overwhelmingly stinking up the whole neighbourhood, as it did after a substantial amount of Clean Burst was spilled at the plant in an accident that Normerica very unwisely tried to hide from authorities at the time.

According to the Government of Ontario, multiple members of the community reported a “clean product odour” similar to Irish Spring soap that was causing eye and throat irritation to those in the area in August 2019.

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After denying multiple complaints — including one from another business that spotted a pungent, foamy substance leaking out of a local sewer drain —inspectors showed up at Normerica, where staff finally admitted to spilling around 200 litres of the powerful ingredient a month earlier.

Subsequent tests found evidence of Clean Burst in a number of samples of storm sewer runoff in the area, which is especially concerning given that not only does the product have a potent and unnatural stench, but is combustible, and can cause allergic skin reactions, asthma-like symptoms, eye irritation, nausea, vomiting, and fertility issues upon exposure.

It was announced this week that Normerica was convicted for failing to report the spill of a pollutant to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, which comes with a fine of $75,000.

The company will also have to pay a victim fine surcharge of $18,750.