EVERETT — The composting operation accused of causing a stink earlier this summer in Marysville and north Everett has taken steps to correct the problem, an official with the company said Friday.
Still, it’s probably not going to be enough, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, the organization responsible for handling complaints about the smells.
Cedar Grove Composting has been adding odor-control liquid to the pungent mix of lawn clippings, potato peelings, apple cores and other organic garbage it grinds up at its Smith Island operation. The company has taken several other measures as well, officials said. Further action, however, could be needed to stifle odors coming from the site, according to officials with Cedar Grove and the Clean Air Agency.
The agency has instructed Cedar Grove by Aug. 25 to pinpoint the source of any and all odors, and to outline a plan and a timeline for dealing with them, said Jim Nolan, compliance officer for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.
Otherwise, Cedar Grove could face fines, he said.
“We’re not totally done yet,” Nolan said. “We want to know what else is going on down there that they potentially need to deal with.”
Gripes about odors in the area have slowed but haven’t stopped.
“The smell has actually gotten better over the past few weeks,” said Sara Dougherty, who lives in the Allen Creek area east of downtown Marysville. “I still smell it on a daily basis but it’s headed in the right direction.”
Others said any improvement has been insignificant.
“I can still smell it,” said Wendy McKenna, who lives in North Point, northeast of downtown.
Food and yard waste from throughout Snohomish County and north King County gets trucked to Cedar Grove’s Smith Island facility, which opened in 2004. The company turns the material into compost and sells it for use in gardens.
Complaints about a foul smell coming from Smith Island skyrocketed in June when the weather warmed up. People who live in Marysville and north Everett complained of an odor that, while present only occasionally before, had become an ever-present stench.
Three different times in June and early July, investigators from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency traced the stink to Cedar Grove Composting. The smell was traced to the operation’s grinder, where the organic waste is grated into compostable material. The machine is located outdoors.
When the material is trucked to Cedar Grove, it’s dumped into an open-air building. Moisture that leaks from it is captured and routed to a holding tank. That pungent liquid is normally deodorized in an aerator, then mixed back in with the material before it’s run through the grinder, company vice president Jerry Bartlett said. It’s mixed back in because the material in the grinder has to be moist, he said.
Some of the holes in the aerator were found to be blocked, and that has been fixed, he said.
The holding tank was emptied and washed out, and incoming loads are inspected more closely for foul-smelling material, company general manager Nick Harbert said in a letter Monday to the Clean Air Agency. The companies that send waste to Cedar Grove have been notified that especially stinky loads will be sent back, Bartlett said.
For nearly a month, the company has been adding the odor-control liquid to the raw compost before it’s run through, Bartlett said.
The company hasn’t ruled out using a different type of grinder or enclosing the grinder in a building, Bartlett said.
In the remainder of the process, the material is stored under tarps for three weeks to break down into compost. Less smelly after that process, the material is then allowed to air out before it is sifted and bagged for sale.
The grinder operates only during daytime hours, Bartlett said. Some who have complained of the smell, though, say it’s just as bad, or worse, at night.
“We had to shut all our windows on this warm evening just to keep the smell out,” Dennis Wampler of Marysville wrote in an e-mail to the Herald Aug. 5.
Nolan said the agency hasn’t ruled out investigating Cedar Grove’s neighbors, which include companies with mulching and bark operations, and the Everett and Marysville sewage treatment plants. Cedar Grove is the northernmost business of Smith Island, west of Highway 529.
Still, he said inspectors sometimes go out at night but have yet to detect the worst of the smells coming from anywhere other than Cedar Grove.
Bartlett said company representatives are personally visiting some of those who complain.
“We are obviously encouraging people to call us directly,” he said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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