Neighbors by tracks complain of stench

Area leaders say they are working on the problem.
FOSTORIA, Ohio (AP) -- People who live alongside rail tracks where trains bound for a landfill sit for hours on end say the smell from the debris onboard is unbearable.
"The landfill says it's construction debris, but in the back of our yard, you can smell it," Judy Brown said. "It smells like trash."
Area leaders say they are working with the railroad to solve the problem in this northwest Ohio town that is criss-crossed by dozens of busy railroad tracks.
City, county and township officials will meet Thursday with leaders of the landfill and the Ottawa-Sandusky-Seneca Solid Waste District.
Mayor John Davoli said he visited the site and saw debris-filled railcars stopped behind the Browns' yard, and noticed "a damp, musty smell."
The mayor said he spoke to Dave Miller, the landfill's superintendent, who told him only construction debris is being moved by rail to the dump.
"He assured me that all the material they have gotten there so far is all construction and demolition materials," Davoli said. "It's not rotten banana peels or that kind of thing."
The railroad maintains it is working to address the problem.
"We are trying to be sensitive to the neighbors' concerns, and the yardmaster is doing the best job that he can of keeping the cars at the opposite side of the yard, when he can," said CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington.
Joseph Schock, a Seneca County commissioner, said the landfill is building a rail track at the site to hold the cars until they are ready to be dumped.
"I have a problem if they're going to be parking cars full of garbage behind people's homes," he said. "That's not acceptable. There's got to be a better way."
Brown and her husband, Dan, said they have seen up to 35 cars at a time parked behind their home, loaded with debris. Sometimes the cars sit for hours, even days.
"I don't think a residential neighborhood is the place to be storing rail cars full of whatever they want to call it," she said.
The Browns and their neighbors think the cars should be stored closer to the landfill, away from homes.
"Get it out of town," said Sharon Brewer, who can see and hear the trains from her front porch. "Or make something where they can take it right into the dump."