Seneca-Babcock neighborhood complains of foul odor around green waste facility

"We need to know what is going on. Why we gotta smell this stuff?"

People who live and work in Buffalo's Seneca-Babcock neighborhood are continuing to complain of a foul smell. They told 7 News it's coming from the Geiter Done green waste facility located on Babcock Street.

According to Geiter Done's website, the multi-acre facility is a "fully functioning wood recycling facility with a New York State certified truck scale." It takes brush, logs, stumps, leaves, grass clippings, and old tree materials to turn them into mulch, compost and biomass.

The City of Buffalo uses the company to compost leaf and yard waste, but recently the DEC issued a violation against the company for an odor.

DEC

7 News' Michael Schwartz went to Lovejoy Councilman Bryan Bollman's office on Thursday and he said he has been getting dozens of complaints.

"I went out on a rainy day, and witnessed a 20, 30, 40-foot pile of fertilizer steaming," said Bollman. "You can't tell me it doesn’t smell."

However, Brian Gwitt, the company's attorney, calls the complaints "meritless." Gwitt did not want to go on camera, but told Schwartz over the phone that the DEC's findings were "the least scientific test there could be."

In a recent letter to the DEC, Gwitt called the neighbors "obsessed" with trying to harm the facility.

"I'd like the attorney to come, and work in my office running his business and smelling it all day long," said Shryl Duderwick, who works in the building next to the facility.

WKBW

Duderwick said it's coming from compost piles on the site, which she said emits steam in the winter.

"When we hear beep, beep, beep we know they're turning over the piles," said Duderwick.

On Thursday afternoon there wasn't any foul smell in the air. Duderwick said the last two days have been great, but on Tuesday it was foul.

Neighbors like Jason Turner said it intensifies in heat.

"I thought it was sewers," said Jason Turner, who lives a few blocks away. "Like rotten eggs."

Outside the facility, Schwartz met Ron Laskowski, who lives a half of a mile away. He said it smells like sewage.

"I couldn’t be outside for long periods of time because it was bad," said Laskowski. "If you were here last week you would've puked."

WKBW

Gwitt said the facility has helped clean up that area of Buffalo and has helped the city. However, Bollman wants the company to listen to the complaints and see what can be done to mitigate any smell.

WKBW

"I expect companies in the City of Buffalo to come to the table as a willing partner," said Bollman.

He said he is disappointed that Gwitt has been quick to deny complaints of his constituents.

This matter will be addressed at a community meeting at the Seneca Babcock Community Center on Tuesday, June 4 at 2 p.m.

Bollman also wants the DEC and the city's permit and inspections department to look into the licenses that Geiter Done has, to make sure the company is operating correctly.