After a grueling, four-hour hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge William Thomas found that odors emanating from Greenco Environmental constitute a nuisance and ordered the firm to correct its problems within 30 days or face additional sanctions.
County attorney Scott Mayfield reviews a log of Greenco odors compiled by Bonnie Kitchings of Old Milner Road while Judge William Thomas looks on during Thursday's hearing. (Photo: Walter Geiger)
If it stinks, it should go away. I'm worried about what does not smell that they are bringing in. Most noxious gasses don't smell at all, and some deadly gasses even smell sweet. We need things that do not mess up our air or water.
My question is where were the neighbors of this facility when the IDA was courting Greenco and the Lesko family and talking about moving such an industry in? If I remember correctly there were no arguments then. In fact, the only recent argument against a business moving in have been with the rock quarry. The commissioners were around with open ears then too, weren't they?
You are right, I don't know what you have had to put up with. But I do know that my attitude is a bit more than self-serving. It is more community minded. I ask you to ask yourself the same question. Is your attitude a bit self-serving?
I think when our county, our city and our IDA were first courting the idea of Greenco they were very much aware of its business practice(s) and what collateral damage may be caused by such endeavors. In other words, I think they knew it would stink. I mean, c'mon. It is compost. There was no foresight into how it might effect neighbors and those who have the right to live decently and to be proud of their neighborhood, homes and community. NO ONE should be embarrassed to have friends/family over because of the stench enveloping their 'hood.
You suggest that perhaps Greenco could work with the county and it's neighbors. I tend to think that submitting to the 30-day time frame is working with. On the same token, perhaps the county could work with Greenco and the neighbors to relocate the company to a more secluded spot in the county (perhaps something that should have been done in the beginning). Let's not forget that the county wanted them here to the point of even giving them tax incentives to move in. The tax dollars are being wasted on both sides, IMHO.
You drive 341 and smell the stench? Really? There are several people on Fellowship Road who have attested to almost never smelling the odor. And you are saying that you smelled Greenco specifically whilst driving 55mph down a 1/4 mile stretch of a highway? I am sorry but I find that very hard to believe.
While I agree with you concerning no one should have to put up with this from an industry I am also aware that the entire city of Savannah and many people in Forsyth deal with some level of stench due to industry and paper mills. They don't seem to have the issues that are now surfacing.
As for leaders? I digress except to say I find it interesting that the leadership is becoming so strong just months before six of the county posts are up for reelection. Seems a great tactic to distract us from the still unbuilt fire headquarters, the uninstalled water pipes that dot the county and other various issues.
After all, there should no emissions from any of the industries located in the park.
And goodness knows, the Kitchings have given the Empower company enough grief about "noise" from their plant. Even tried to harass the railroad for daring to haul hazardous material by on their trains!
Someone seems to need to "get a life" it would appear to me.
You also put election in quotes which means you find the elections to either be ironic or you don't believe that the general primary is, in fact, in July.
As for other counties? I don't know anything about their leadership but I do know people continue to live there and even relocate there so it obviously isn't a huge point of contention as we are making it out to be. I think many of our fellow county members have simply found an argument to join and have thus done so.
I am not an IDA fan but I am also not a sleight of hand fan either.
I read all of this and I guess it's good people are involved. But it really should involve only the people effected by the odor.
I do have a question for the county and Greenco. This question did not come up at the meeting.
What about the rodent and buzzard problem? Everyday we have hundreds of buzzards flying over our business. And the business has to be attracting rodents.
While I am at it, I found this older webpage to be an interesting read:
http://www.barnesvillega.net/ida%20history.htm
I also think the structure should have been required to have wind breaks and ample vegetation to offset the composting smells.
I have no doubt that Tim Lesko is familiar (moreso than me) with nitrogen measurements, moisture measurements, C:N ratios, etc.
Oh really? So when I was working up there on a Saturday several years ago and Billy Kitchings came into the back lot raising hell about the noise-it was my imagination?
Hmmm, methinks you might not be who you claim to be or know what you claim to know.
I truly hope that the Leskos will be able to find a solution to the problem. I do not want them to lose their business nor do I want their employees to lose their jobs. But those of us who live in the area, whether we moved here before or after the industrial park was built, should not have to put up with the noxious odor that has been affecting our quality of life.
You all seem like nice people, but no community is without it's drawbacks. If your biggest problem is odor, you should talk to people who live in any large Metropolis where crime runs amok and nobody can get more money for police.
You are obviously a community that cares and has willing politicians to help. Most cities do not even have that. Their citizens are robbed on a daily basis. It's considerably more than an inconvenience.
I just think you should take a step back and examine what some of you are doing. It appears that you're trying to drive a young family owned business, of the budding green industry that is hiring where so many people have been devastated by unemployment out of town on a rail.
Of course you have the right to complain if you feel something's wrong in your community. But do you really want Barnesville seen as unwelcoming to new business?
You can say "we want Greenco to succeed" all you want. Your actions are putting them under.
The population revolted, and caused the county to scrap the composting operation. I do not believe a composting operation will do anything but smell bad. It deals with decomposing, which is a form of oxidation, and all the chemistry of the item is released. I feel the people that are doing this are not aware of the trade off's of this type of operation. I recall growing up here, and smelling the Paper Mill at Macon. Fortunately that seems to have been cleared up. It is a shame this group cannot do the same.
Comment #3
"If it stinks, it should go away. I'm
worried about what does not smell that they
are bringing in. Most noxious gasses don't
smell at all, and some deadly gasses even
smell sweet. We need things that do not mess
up our air or water."
When appropriate ratios are found it should not smell. I agree that there is a problem, but I believe that Greeco is working on it. As far as pollution I'm more worried about the methane, which is a greenhouse gas, produced by a landfill. Of course I realize that a landfill is a necessity, but there are things we can do to reduce the amount of waste going in (recycling). Composting is a way to keep large quantities of food waste out. In addition, the compost gets reused. My point is that it's a natural process using materials that we have deemed safe for human consumption along with wood chips and yard debris. No additional chemicals (pollutants) are added.
To #9.2: Decomposition (where the name compost comes from) is a naturally occurring process. It happens to animals that die on the side of the road, trash in the landfill, food scraps that people throw out, etc. While left on it's own, (animal in the road)it will definitely stink. Composting done correctly should not produce such strong smells. I'm just saying it may be a healthier alternative to throwing everything in the dump.
Your comments are so ridiculous, that I don't even know where to begin. This is not some simple "drawback" nor is this "vigilante politics driven by angry citizens with pitch forks and torches." It is also more than a simple "inconvenience". A simple inconvenience is having to drive 30 miles round trip to be able to purchase an item that is not carried locally because you choose to live in a rural area. Feeling like you are stepping out into a cesspool when you go outside is not a simple inconvenience. A simple inconvenience would be smelling SLIGHT odors coming from the site on rare occasions, not 15 to 20 days a month of stench. I live almost 2 miles as the crows flies from the facility. I can't imagine what it is like for the people on Old Milner Rd. and for the families behind area. I guarantee that if this was happening in your or the Leskos backyard, you would not put up with it either.
The hearing and ruling by the court came after almost five months of the citizens trying to work with Greenco to fix this problem. And instead of acting defensive, denying that there was a problem, or blaming it on the rain or worse yet, the landfill, Tim should have taken whatever measures were necessary to rectify the problem. If the rain is the issue, then maybe the windrows need to be covered when storms are expected. It seems to me that the forecasters have quiet accurately forecasted ALL of our downpours and even predicted that we would have a wetter than normal season. We may even be going into a wetter than normal period for some time to come, so if you know that excessive moisture is one of the causes of the stench, it seems to me that you would be doing something to keep the windrows from getting so wet. And lets face the truth of the matter. Every study that I have read, states that FOOD WASTE, ESPECIALLY MEAT, will cause severe odor. If it takes a 10 to 1 ratio of carbon to waste to correct the problem, then I am sorry but that is what they will need to do, and should have done without the court forcing it. Maybe Tim should not have made promises that there would be no odor in the first place. I am sure that he did thorough research before sinking his life savings into this business, so he had to know that he could not keep that promise.
I don't know how to put this any clearer to you than has already been stated. We DO NOT want Greenco to go under! We are NOT trying to stop a family owned budding green industry nor "run them out of town on a rail". But if we cannot go outside of our homes because of a putrid odor, it is no different from you not being able to leave your home because of the crime in your area.The quality of our lives is just as important as the Lesko's or any other business. As long as new business is respectfull of us and our environment, we need them and more than welcome them.