Sewage, Fertilizer Smells Drive Neighbors to Court : Odors: Hundreds of Carson and Wilmington residents join in a suit against the county sanitation districts and Kellogg Supply.

For years, Carson and Wilmington residents have put up with the stench from a sewage treatment plant and an adjacent fertilizer company. This week, about 550 residents fought back.

In a joint lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, which operates the sewage treatment plant, and Kellogg Supply Inc., the fertilizer company, residents are alleging that odors and contaminants from the plants have caused them health problems.

“It smells like something you can’t print in the paper,” said Rick Perkins, who lives in Carson.

Don Avila, a spokesman for the sanitation districts, declined comment on the suit because the department had not yet seen it.

Although sanitation officials have in the past recognized that odors from the sewage plant are annoying, they pointed out that pollution emissions from the facility are lower than they were 10 to 15 years ago.

Perkins said the odors are so bad at times that his eyes burn. Then there are the layers of soot that accumulate on homes and cars in surrounding neighborhoods.

“People are beside themselves,” said Robert Mars, an attorney representing the residents. “It’s like someone shook a bottle of Folger’s instant coffee all over their cars. It’s all dried up human waste.”

Kellogg Supply spokeswoman Wilma Dabu, although declining to comment specifically about the suit, said the company is not a detriment to the community. The firm composts sewage sludge obtained from the sanitation plant to make fertilizer.

“We don’t feel we’re a problem in the area,” Dabu said. “We feel we’re beneficial to the area. We take an environmentally difficult to handle substance and we turn it into something beneficial.”

That substance is in large part human manure purchased from the sanitation districts and stored in open piles up to 100 feet high, Mars said. Air currents carry the manure, along with compost from fields at the sewage treatment plant, into surrounding neighborhoods, he said.

The odors, along with fumes from local refineries, have long bothered residents, who said their complaints have largely fallen on deaf ears. And they believe the problem has gotten worse in the last three years, Mars said.

The sewage plant provides primary and partial secondary treatment for 350 million gallons of wastewater per day. It serves about 3 million people, as well as many industries.

Mindful of opposition to the plant’s composting operation, the sanitation agency last year decided to shut it down. At the time, residents praised the decision.

However, Mars said the composting operation itself was but a small part of the problem. “The odors have not substantially subsided,” he said.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that chemicals, noxious gases and other contaminants released into the air have caused nausea, burning of the eyes and other health problems for residents. The residents are seeking an unspecified amount in damages from the two facilities, which are located near the intersection of Figueroa Street and Sepulveda Boulevard in Carson.

Perkins, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said he is sometimes embarrassed to have friends over because of the smell.

“My reason for joining in this (lawsuit) is trying to make them aware that people don’t like it,” Perkins said. “We want safety of the air we breathe to be 100%.”

$50-MILLION CLAIM

Rolling Hills Estates residents say sanitation districts improperly dumped toxic materials at old landfill. B5