After 1,000 Complaints, Air Quality Officials Investigate California Landfill

One thousand neighbors have complained about an awful, rotten-egg stench from a local landfill, now the Air District is stepping in.

The community has been complaining about a noxious odor emitting from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in northern Los Angeles County. Now, the South Coast Air Quality Management (AQMD) District is taking significant steps towards addressing the community’s concerns.

Earlier this week, the agency filed a petition for an Order of Abatement. This would compel the landfill to take actions to reduce the nauseating odors that have bothered nearby residents.

Complaints started rolling in about the Chiquita Canyon Landfill back in May when South Coast AQMD began receiving tons of complaints regarding the landfill. After an investigation, the agency’s experts revealed that the landfill contained elevated levels of sulfur, particularly dimethyl sulfide, were present in the landfill’s gas.

The agency found that the landfill’s gas treatment system was not equipped to deal with the levels of sulfur, which was the product of an underlying subsurface chemical reaction.

The Order of Abatement is meant to require Chiquita Canyon to take comprehensive measures to mitigate the odor issue. This would include conducting a thorough investigation into the underlying chemical reactions causing the sulfur emissions.

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