Firm Sued Over Yard Waste Odors

Cedar Grove Composting Inc. has been hit with a $490,000 fine for causing widespread odor problems around its Maple Valley processing facility.

The fine was imposed by the Puget Sound Air Pollution Control Authority for what it called “very serious” odor problems in June.

The authority also said Cedar Grove violated a 2-year-old agreement under which the company ran an odor-reduction system it installed to deal with earlier odor problems.

The company, which processes grass clippings, leaves and yard waste from more than 400,000 households in the region, said it will appeal the fine to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board in an effort to get it set aside.

“This action is completely out of line with the problem,” Cedar Grove President Stephan Banchero said.

Last month alone, air-quality regulators received 508 complaints.

“There are times in the morning when you want to barf because of the odor,” said Everett Wilcock, who lives four miles from the site.

The company said it has invested more than $4 million in the past two years in technology to control odors.

But authority officials contend Cedar Grove improperly operated the odor-control system by moving its airflow in the wrong direction and didn’t ventilate the yard waste mixture long enough.

One solution the company is looking into is to reduce the amount of yard waste handled during the spring to prevent huge piles of grass clippings from decomposing and creating odors, said Cedar Grove spokeswoman Barbara Smith.

The company has other odor-reducing plans which include enclosing the loading facility in a $250,000 building to prevent odors from escaping from waste in the first hours after it is unloaded, Smith said.

Jim Nolan, compliance director for the pollution control authority, said he doesn’t expect Cedar Grove to pay the full fine, which is far from a record but well above the average amount imposed by the agency for air-pollution violations.

He said the fine was proposed “so (we) have leverage to get improvements made. We’re interested in getting the problem solved.”

The company has a tentative date for its appeal with the hearings board in October but, Nolan said, he hopes the two sides can arrive at solutions to the odor problems and renegotiate or reconsider the fine before that.