PHOENIX — Some Laveen residents are staying indoors with their windows shut because of a scent filling the air.
They said it's not what you'd typically smell coming from a farm — it's much stronger.
"It's like rancid," a person living nearby said. "Sometimes you open the door and it comes in. It's bad. It's really bad."
They think the odor is coming from a composting facility near 35th Avenue and Dobbins Road.
The owner, Neal Brooks, previously told 12News his mission is to keep waste out of landfills by converting organic matter into enriching fertilizer.
12News reached out to Brooks for comment but he declined.
Neighbors said they can smell the odor at all times of the day and from miles away.
“We would like them to stop doing it to be honest," Liza Merrill said. "I believe that we need to take care of Mother Earth and that we want to try to repurpose but when you’re this close to an area like ours and it goes, the smell really permeates, I think you have to have consideration for your neighbors.”
Complaints from neighbors got the attention of county and state regulators.
12News obtained an inspection report from September 23 in which an inspector with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality documented brewery smells and a strong odor of decay coming from parts of the farm.
An ADEQ spokesperson said the department advised the facility to stop storing industrial wastewater in a basin, which it expects will reduce the smells affecting the community.
Maricopa County inspectors did not find any air quality issues or public health nuisances.
Maricopa County Planning and Development found the commercial business is operating without a permit in a rural zoning district. A code compliance hearing is scheduled for November 5.
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