The West Coast Reduction Ltd. plant in Vancouver will not be subject to stricter odour limits, an appeal board has decided. (wcrl.com)

A group of East Vancouver residents say they're furious with the B.C. Environmental Appeal Board's dismissal of their concerns about the smell coming from a neighbourhood rendering plant.

The board released two decisions Monday, rejecting calls for stricter odour limits on the Commercial Drive plant owned by West Coast Reduction Ltd.

"It's not some sort of phantom odour," said area resident Don Dickson. "It's not some small group of hypersensitive people who are bothered by something that most people would take in stride. It's really bad."

'I think it's an outrageous decision'— Area resident Blair Redlin

Part of the rendering plant's business is to process organic remains from slaughterhouses into oils, fats, pet foods and other products.

Dickson was one of four residents of the area southeast of Commercial Drive and East Hastings Street who claimed limits set by West Coast Reduction's air permit were too low. The company argued that Metro Vancouver went too far by putting in place a measurement of so-called "odour units" to try to limit emissions causing the smell.

The board sided with the company, saying Dickson and the other complainants spoke for a small percentage of the population.

Metro Vancouver supported residents

However, a Metro spokesman said he thought the residents had a good case.

"I felt that the residents had provided very strong evidence to show that air quality was unacceptable," said Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver's district director of air quality. "If this is not enough — and this is the site that generates the most complaints of any site in Metro Vancouver — then nothing is enough."

In its decision, the appeal board recommended that resident and company representatives get together to discuss the complaints.

"There is a group of [residents] that are not happy," said Ken Ingram, a spokesman for West Coast Reduction. "We will try to engage them and come to some resolution and bring them some satisfaction that the appeals obviously did not."

For another resident who was among the original four who fought the company, working with the company was not an option.

"I think it's an outrageous decision," Blair Redlin told CBC News. "We do not need to be building trust with this polluter. We need the pollution to end. We need the odours to stop."