http://www.mjsite.com saves this page so readers can
view old news that may not still be availible elsewhere.
This is a saved page of
Resident, Health Board clear air over rancid smell (Town Online)
This is a copy we made of the page on 07-Aug-2006.
The original page may or may not still be availible and pictures and text may
have changed since then.
Click Here to view the original page at the original
website.
TownOnline.com - Local News: Resident, Health Board clear air over rancid smell
Resident, Health Board clear air over rancid smell
By Bonnie Chandler/ Correspondent
Friday, August 4, 2006
The smelly fertilizer incident at Bolton Flats a few weeks ago has left behind only a "bearable" odor now, according to Still River Road resident Ed Sterling. However, to prevent any possibility of recurrence, he met with the Board of Health at its meeting last week to discuss "farm management practices" and was assured that it would not happen again.
"I think when all was said and done it was just a misunderstanding. It was not anyone's intention to cause a stink," Andrea Schnepf, the health board's administrator, said this week.
Schnepf said that the farmers, Harper Brothers of Lancaster, had been surprised when she notified them on Monday, July 17, that there were complaints about the pile of fertilizer on the field next to Still River Road. One of several fields the Harper Brothers lease from the Bolton Flats wildlife management area, it extends from the vicinity of Broomfield Labs to the smaller Flats parking area. Planting had been delayed by heavy rains this spring and summer. The brothers said that Ag Resources, from whom they ordered the fertilizer, had not told them it was there already. They also said the trucks had dumped it in the wrong part of the field. The farmers moved several tractors to the site that evening and plowed the fertilizer under the next morning, Schnepf said.
The gray-white material was an organic fertilizer mostly composed of bone meal and gelatinized hoofs. Several days of heavy rains and unusual heat following the delivery exacerbated the fertilizer's powerful odor.
The smell was very noticeable to anyone driving along Still River Road. Sterling, who lives directly across the street from the spot where the manure was piled, called it "overpowering" and "unbearable." He noted that in past years the farmer had used regular manure, resulting in a couple of odiferous days, but nothing intolerable. In addition, he said, the manure pile wasn't right in front of his house as it was this year, but instead used to be further up the road behind a thick buffer of trees and bushes.
Schnepf said this week that the Harpers had agreed to inform the town if they brought in that fertilizer in the future. They would also ensure that the delivery site was farther from neighboring homes. "I think everybody's happy now," she said.
Sterling later said the odor has improved, though "it's been a little ripe on the weekend, I think because of the heat. It's basically gone down to your familiar farm smell." His house and car still smell, "almost akin to smoke damage," but he said he agreed with efforts to encourage agriculture in town.
Sterling said the health board members told him that "smell in and of itself isn't a health risk." He said the board acted more vigorously on a recent complaint about an Old Bay Road field treated with pig manure - ordering the farmer not to use that type of manure any more - because the manure had attracted so many flies that the flies themselves became a health problem for the neighbors. [continue]
E-mail
Printable
Popular
