FRUITLAND, Idaho — Residents near a food processing plant in Fruitland say a nauseating odor from onion waste has become so unbearable that they are selling their homes.
Six years ago, Cindy Shipley and her husband Rick moved into their home, which sits directly behind the plant. They said they never noticed a problem until this summer.
Now, the smell has become a deciding factor in their plans to leave.
"We don't want to go in our backyard," Shipley said. "It's a big factor in us deciding to sell our home."
Neighborhood Reporter Norma James was out in Fruitland today, and noticed the strong odor.
The smell is coming from the Dickinson Frozen Foods plant, where onion waste, called tailings, has been left sitting on the property. Fruitland Public Works Director Matt Brock said the tailings have been left for months on the property to pile up. The alleged buyer bought them for dairy cows, but went out of business.
Other neighbors say the odor is affecting their daily lives and their livelihoods.
Ashley Salvidor, an in-home dog groomer, said, "I have a little small business that I run here, and my customers are complaining about the smell when they show up to drop the dogs off."
Luke Taylor, another neighbor, just installed a pool, but says he can't use it.
"Just going outside to the backyard, it's like, well, I don't wanna stay out here," Taylor said.
This is not the first time the Dickinson plant has faced scrutiny over waste. In records obtained by Idaho News 6, the city of Fruitland fined the plant three months in a row for dumping too much waste into the Fruitland sewer system.
The city allows the plant to dump 600 pounds of waste per day. On the days they were tested, the plant exceeded that limit by hundreds of pounds.
After two months of complaints from neighbors, the Fruitland Police Department issued a nuisance order to Dickinson Frozen Foods. The plant manager advised police that the company has begun implementing corrective measures, including pumping the affected collection basins to help eliminate the odor.
The Dickinson facility does appear to have cleaned out most of the tailings, but the smell still lingers.
