Board Attempts To Clear The Air At Colbert Plant Hasson, Harris Lead Air Pollution Board To Order Daily Sniffing Inspections

Two Spokane County commissioners on the county’s air pollution board want action against the odor-plagued Colbert compost plant.

At their encouragement on Thursday, the board agreed to order local air quality cops to sniff and report daily to neighbors for a month - and fine the city-managed facility repeatedly if it stinks.

“I’m looking for enforcement,” said Commissioner Phil Harris.

The fines could give the city the legal clout to revoke its contract with O.M. Scott & Sons, the Ohio company that operates the $2 million Colbert facility in a public-private partnership.

The Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority cited the compost plant over the Memorial Day weekend for noxious odors, and fined Spokane’s regional garbage authority $250.

Despite constant complaints from neighbors, no fines have been issued since.

The stench has improved since May because the plant modified its procedures, but the facility still isn’t odor-free, SCAPCA Director Eric Skelton told the board.

“People out there feel there should be no offsite odors. They feel they were promised that” before the plant was built, Skelton said.

He suggested monitoring the plant on bad days and having a county board that resolves zoning disputes decide whether it should be evicted from the residential neighborhood.

The plant has violated state air quality laws only once out of 79 inspections, Skelton said in a July 31 letter to the commissioners.

“Prior to and following this one (May) incident, in 1995 the facility has smelled exactly like what one should expect of a compost facility,” he said.

Skelton said the conflict is less of an air quality issue than a land-use question: Should a compost facility have been built next to a residential area?

Skelton’s stance appeared to anger the commissioners, who said their confidence in the air pollution director is at stake. Harris and Commissioner Steve Hasson say they’ve received more than 1,500 complaints.

“The old ‘smell it and give ‘em 30 days’ game has to stop,” Harris said.

But the commissioners saved their strongest barbs for the city and its solid waste managers for building the plant at Colbert.

City officials knew compost plants nationwide had serious odor problems, Harris said. He said it’s doubly traumatic for Colbert, where drinking water was polluted a decade ago by industrial chemicals dumped in the Colbert landfill.

“It’s like telling those people, we’ve put something there to ruin your water, and now we’re going to put in a stink to make you sick,” Harris said.

Phil Williams, the city’s regional solid waste director, said it’s “absolutely untrue” that the city knew compost plants had serious problems before building the Colbert facility.

On Thursday, Williams was in Seattle examining a new odor control system at a large compost plant.

“We have an obligation to make things better,” he said.

Harris also rapped the city’s contract with O.M. Scott & Sons, calling it “the worst contract I’ve ever seen.”

Under the contract, the city is required to give O.M. Scott 30 days’ notice to correct any odor problems before moving to revoke their contract.

The council’s 30-day ultimatum expired June 21 without a second SCAPCA citation.

The air quality board also authorized overtime for SCAPCA’s daily inspections, which will continue through Labor Day weekend. They will cost up to $2,000 in overtime, Skelton said.

The commissioners’ move is a positive step, said the chairman of Concerned Citizens of Colbert, a group fighting the plant.

But it remains unclear whether the stepped-up enforcement will force the facility to close, said Mike Barcelo, treasurer of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.

“We keep hoping, but it’s still stinking,” Barcelo said.

, DataTimes