St.Mary’s, a small town in Newfoundland, Canada has somehow been dealing with a horrific smell for the past seventeen years.  The terrible smell is caused by fermented seafood sauce that was left at an abandoned factory.

During the summer months, the smell is so strong that it’s actually hard to breathe. Some people in the area feel no choice but to lock up their homes, and leave to live with family and friends further away.

It all began back in 1990 when a Vietnamese man opened up a Seafood Sauce factory. He wanted to create a special sauce, popular in Vietnamese cooking. Although things started out well, after 4 years, his factory was forced to shut down due to being deemed unsanitary by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

However, although the factory shut down it’s production, a massive amount of fermenting fish parts and seafood sauce was left behind. According to residents of the area, the smell gets worse and worse as time goes by.  Some people even wear masks when they walk by the factory in order to protect themselves from potentially toxic substances.

At one point, there was even some leaks which caused it to enter the drains, and come out of the sides of the building, and rumor has it there’s nearly 4 inches of rotting sauce on the floor of the factory.

Authorities tried to hire a company to go and clean it, however environmental agencies prevented them from continuing after they dumped containers of toxic substances into the ocean. And ever since, an alternative solution has yet to be found.

Companies that have considered taking on this challenging protect have asked for hefty sums that the small town simply cannot afford to pay, with quotes as high as $700,000 Canadian.