SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : La Pata Firm to Halt Composting Activities

A local composting plant has voluntarily scaled back operations in response to a flurry of complaints about bad odors.

By Friday, La Pata Greenwaste should have the last of its giant piles of composting material removed from the site, said Ken Wishnick, divisional vice president of Houston-based Browning-Ferris Industries, which owns La Pata.

“We’ve decided that it’s the right thing to do at this point in time because it’s the only way to know conclusively if we are the source of odor in the area,” Wishnick said Tuesday.

At its peak this summer, the business took in an average of 200 tons of green waste per day, mulched it, then put it in huge rows to make compost.

But since October, residents who live in upscale homes have been clamoring for the plant to shut down or relocate. The site is east of the city on La Pata Avenue.

Wishnick said the company doesn’t plan to abandon the outdoor plant, which for now will continue to mulch--but not compost (allow to decompose). The material will be trucked to the company’s Irvine facility for composting or sale.

Patti Henshaw, supervisor of the solid waste program for the county’s Environmental Health Department, said that the company has not been ordered to curtail operations.

“They can still compost as far as we’re concerned,” Henshaw said. “We’ll just see if they can keep it under control.”

Tim RuthStiver, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said the number of complaints has dropped recently.