Compost’S Stink Upsets Residents

The composting plant operated by O.M. Scott & Sons is creating a big stink on the North Side.

Complaints about foul odors from rotting yard wastes in the hot weather are coming from a housing development to the west of the plant across U.S. Highway 2 in Colbert.

“People are not happy about having to smell this,” Spokane Solid Waste Director Phil Williams said Monday.

Local air quality cops received 60 complaints in July about the smell, said Eric Skelton, Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority director.

City officials and plant operators have tried several experiments to reduce the stink, including using chemicals and capping the decaying waste with composted material.

“So far, there’s no silver bullet solution,” Williams said.

Because of the problem, the city has temporarily stopped taking compost materials from the incinerator to the composting plant. They are burning it instead.

SCAPCA inspectors and a temporary employee hired by Williams’ office have been sniffing around the plant late at night, when temperature inversions appear to be carrying the smell to sleeping neighbors. Williams’ odor sleuth has been asked to tell the city whether the smells are “like an old tennis shoe or a pine forest,” Williams said.

“The neighbors’ attitude now is that no smell is the only thing that is acceptable,” he said.

Representatives from O.M. Scott, the city and the air pollution agency plan to meet Wednesday to discuss the problem, Skelton said.

The $1.85 million composting facility was approved in July 1993 by the Spokane City Council.

Scott, an Ohio firm, is running the facility with equipment bought by Spokane taxpayers on cityowned land near the Colbert landfill.