WARREN Residents have smelly problem

The source of the smell is unknown, a city health department official said.
By AMANDA C. DAVIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Ron Burr has been sniffing around.
Like other residents of the southwest side of town bordering Warren Township, Burr is looking for the source of an odor being described as a combination of rotting garbage and sewage, getting worse over several weeks.
The West Market Street man was out Thursday taking a whiff near manhole covers, but he couldn't find the source of the smell that's disrupted his life.
"Sometimes I have to run from the car to my house," he said. "I can't stand that smell."
Some, including Burr, say they think the stench is coming from Warren Recycling Inc. at 300 Martin Luther King Avenue S.W., which has a landfill permit for construction and demolition debris, but not garbage.
Warren Recycling is a transfer center for the city. All city trash is taken to the center then to solid waste landfills.
Warren Township Trustee Kay Anderson, who lives on Burnett Road, said the odor is so offensive it sometimes permeates car windows.
Daily complaints: "We get calls daily on it," she said. "It's atrocious."
Most of the residents complaining live on South Leavitt Road, Risher Road and West Market Street -- three roads that border Warren Recycling, Anderson said.
"I can't at this time say this smell is coming from Warren Recycling," said Bob Pinti, the city's deputy health commissioner. "These things are very difficult to put your finger on."
The Twinsburg office of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spent two days looking for the cause of the smell. A health department inspector also was out.
Neither came to any conclusions, Pinti said.
Anthony DiCenso, who works for Warren Recycling, said he's sure the smell is not coming from the landfill and explained that operations have remained the same since it opened eight years ago.
His theory: He thinks the odor may be coming from a gas well that needs emptied.
"We don't have any mysterious odors emitting from our facility," he said. "We're here every day and we don't smell anything."
Bill Bush, who lives on Elm Street just off South Leavitt Road, said the strength of the odor depends on the day and which direction the wind is blowing. It wasn't so bad Thursday, he said.
Usually, though, its so strong that people living in the area can smell it in their cars and sometimes in their homes, even with the windows and doors closed, Bush said.
Pinti said no one has complained the odor smells like natural gas, even though several people in the area logged that complaint more than a year ago. The source of that smell was never determined.
The city even checked to see if the smell could be coming from the city's Water Pollution Control Department on South Main Street, and at a factory near the landfill.
Anderson said sewer lines in the area were also checked.
"It's really puzzling," Pinti said.
davis@vindy.com