Gonic area residents say landfill stench is so strong 'you can almost taste it'

Waste Management Director of Operations Steve Poggi speaking about the increased odors being emitted from Turnkey Landfill (Sanborn Head NHPR; inset, City Council Workshop screen capture)

ROCHESTER - Karen Brown of Pickering Road says sometimes the smell emanating from Waste Management's Turnkey Landfill is so strong "you can almost taste it."
"It's a regular occurrence," she told The Rochester Voice on Wednesday. "It usually happens in the early morning hours, but it can also happen during the day."
Brown said that when she complains Waste Management says their doing repairs to try to mitigate the odor.
She said it's worst on the weekends.
"Sometimes you'll smell the odors beginning on Friday afternoon and it will last all weekend," she said.
Brown, who lives about two miles from the landfill, said some homeowners don't like to make a lot of noise about the smell, because they fear it will affect their property values, but for her, it's a matter of how it's ruining her family's quality of life.
"It forces you back indoors on a nice day," she said.
Waste Management Director of Operations Steve Poggi acknowledged on Tuesday during a City Council workshop that the landfill was having a problem with the odors.
He blamed the smell problem on heavy rains that occurred over the summer and fall.
"We know there's been an uptick in odors," said Poggi. "We've had more rain through September then we typically have in an entire year."
Poggi said the rain not only elevates levels of methane gas, but also can compromise the gas collections equipment the landfill employs to mitigate the odors.
"It floods out collectors, wells and horizontal collectors, so it makes it more challenging," he added.
He said Waste Management has spent about $1.5 million through September to install vacuum lines, drill some 50 collection wells and install temporary membrane to contain the gasses that are escaping.
Brown, who lives about two miles from the landfill, said whatever Waste Management is doing, it isn't enough.
"All my neighbors say they smell it," she said. "They can smell it over on Tebbett's, they can smell it on Stillwater Drive, on Chesley Hill Road and even the Gonic School. The perimeter of odor is getting wider."
Brown said in the past the landfill didn't accept sludge, but they are now.
"This is not right," she said. "It drives you indoors and permeates your indoors. It gives me bad headaches."