MHA Sherry Gambin-Walsh is welcoming the start of the long-awaited cleanup of the former Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company site in St. Mary’s.

The cleanup marks the culmination of more than a decade of work involving the town and a variety of provincial and federal government departments.

The abandoned site contains some 110 vats of toxic fish sauce which has been fermenting in the heavily damaged plant building for the last 20 years.

Gambin-Walsh says there have been numerous challenges getting to this point including private ownership issues, property liens, environmental assessments, changing regulations and jurisdictional uncertainty dating back to the 1990s.

She says the people of St. Mary’s have waited patiently for the cleanup.