City's demolition contractor shifts to compost without knee-buckling aroma, reports neighborhood leader

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linda Seger reports that there is compost and then there is compost.

Seger, a northwest Cedar Rapids flood survivor and a prominent community voice on flood recovery, reports that the city is required by federal rule to cover the hole left after the demolition of a flood-damaged home with a cap of compost.

However, the compost used at four demolition sites this week in the Time Check Neighborhood came with a knee-buckling aroma, Seger reports.

“Horrible; disgusting,” she said.

The compost is coming from the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency's compost operation at the agency's Site 1 landfill – affectionately known as Mount Trashmore – near Czech Village.

Seger said city officials have told her that the city's demolition contractor will shift to a different part of the compost operation and get material less ripe to use on demolition sites.

John Riggs, assistant manager in the city's Code Enforcement Division, acknowledged on Friday that some of the compost that had made its way to the Time Check Neighborhood did "kind of stink." Hence, the shift to a different pile of the stuff at the compost operation, he said.

He emphasized, though, that the solid waste agency's compost comes from natural products and not sewage sludge as he said some rumors had suggested.

He added that the solid waste agency was donating the material for free.

"It will make some pretty nice yards when it's all done with it," he said.