Landfill neighbors complain of stench; Iowa City blames flood debris, rain

For more than a year, Patrick and Nancy Hitchon and their neighbors have been dealing with a smelly problem.

Foul odors regularly drift over from Iowa City's 180-acre landfill a little more than a mile away on the western edge of town. When it hits, they head inside and shut the windows, but some say it can even infiltrate a closed house.

It's been described as smelling like rotten eggs. Nancy Hitchon compares it to ammonia and said it's been mistaken by guests for a gas leak.

“Sometimes it's so strong it's unbelievable,” said Hitchon, of 29 Tucson Pl.

City officials acknowledge it's a problem, one they've had trouble getting under control. They said it appears to be related to rainier-than-normal weather the past couple of years and an influx of saturated debris since last year's flood.

Typically, it takes a few years for trash to start to smell at the landfill, by which time it's covered. The extra moisture has been jump-starting the decomposition process, though, allowing the smell to escape more easily from the top layers, said Dave Elias, the city's wastewater and landfill superintendent.

“It has turned out to be a lot more complicated than we thought it would be,” he said.

Residents say the smell reaches them about once a week and is worst in the mornings and evenings on cool days. One of the bad days was Halloween during trick-or-treating.

Iowa City has spent close to $400,000 on the problem, mainly on upgrading the landfill's gas collection system, said Rick Fosse, the city's public works director.

A long list of other efforts includes additional monitoring and increasing the rate on blowers that capture emissions. Elias said city staff will continue to work on a resolution.

Several complaints have been filed with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The DNR issued the city a notice of violation in September for starting gas collections from a certain landfill cell nine months later than the five years required by federal law.

Kurt Levetzow, an environmental specialist with the DNR, said he wasn't sure if that violation contributed to the odor problem, but he required the landfill to develop a plan of action so it doesn't happen again.

He agreed with city officials that extra-wet waste is the likely culprit. He has not had any other odor complaints from landfills that received large amounts of flood debris, but he believes Iowa City is doing its best to resolve the problem.

Levetzow said all landfills smell but rarely does the DNR get complaints from people who live a mile or more away. Typically, one needs to be at the spot where dump trucks pull up to get a whiff of the stench, he said.

Hitchon said she has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years with no previous problem.

Larry Jewell has lived at 53 Tucson Place since 2001 and said he never smelled anything this bad until after the flood. Jewell said that in addition to unsuspecting homeowners moving into the growing neighborhood, he's worried about a drop in property values.

“They need to either solve the particular issue or relocate the city landfill,” he said.