EVERETT — The brief heat wave last week may have prompted the wave of calls about the recurrence of an offensive odor around north Everett and Marysville.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Cedar Grove Composting on Smith Island and Marysville all have received calls from people who say the stink that overwhelmed the area during parts of last summer has returned.
Many callers have said they believe the smell is from Cedar Grove, which processes organic refuse from most of Snohomish County.
So far, the Clean Air Agency, which has jurisdiction over air quality matters that don’t involve industrial pollution, hasn’t been able to trace any of the recent complaints to the composting facility.
“We are getting complaints on a regular basis, not nearly the volume of last year,” said Mario Pedroza, supervising inspector for the Clean Air Agency.
Cedar Grove emitted an odor last year that was enough of a nuisance to force the company to try to fix the problem, the Clean Air Agency determined. The agency has the power to levy fines.
The company has taken several measures, including planting trees and installing doors on an open-air building, to quell the smell.
To pin an odor complaint to a particular source, the Clear Air Agency must send an investigator to trace the smell from the place of the call while the odor is still present. Several of the calls received recently have been after the fact, Pedroza said.
Gary Clark of Marysville smelled the problem last year, and says he’s smelling it again now. He isn’t certain of the source.
“All I know is that whenever the temperature gets into the 80s, and there is a breeze, the smell becomes quite annoying,” he said. “It is a stink, a stench, an assault upon one’s nostrils, like a combination of the aromas of roasting coffee, bovine urine and rotting organic matter.”
One Marysville caller blamed the smell on Cedar Grove, but it was traced to a farmer applying fertilizer to his field, Pedroza said.
Last year, the stench hit the fan in late June when residents in Marysville and north Everett complained of an offensive and overpowering odor that smelled like rotting garbage. The complaints came on the heels of a large increase in volume at Cedar Grove, especially grass clippings. This year the rise in volume, which occurs every spring, has been more gradual, said Susan Thoman, director of business development and marketing for Cedar Grove.
Over the winter, when the company’s volume was lower and the weather was colder, few complaints were received.
Heat itself doesn’t necessarily make the composting material smell worse, Thoman said. It does bring people outside more, she said, and “smells tend to stay in the air more.”
Company officials say they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on several remedies, including planting 2,180 trees and 24,375 bushes around the edges of the property, officials said.
The Clean Air Agency says these measures are steps in the right direction but say it’s likely the company still will be required to fully enclose parts of its operation. The areas that generate the most smell include the large building where the material is dropped off and the outdoor machine that grinds it up before it is moved into piles for composting. Cedar Grove installed doors on the building over the winter.
A new building for these operations would be expensive and the agency will not likely require the company to spend that money this year, officials said.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
Where to call
Complaints about odors may be directed to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency at 206-343-8800, ext. 6, or 800-552-3565, ext. 6.
Correction, June 11, 2009: This article originally used an incorrect phone number for reporting complaints to the Clean Air Agency.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
