PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va -- Residents in southern Prince George County have complained about an odor coming from the Sussex County landfill for more than a year, but Monday a notice violation was issued.
"It reeks and it just covers, it gets in your car, it gets into everything" said James Davis, who lives in Prince George County but is just a few miles from the landfill in Sussex.
Sussex County landfill
"It's God awful" he extorted but he's not alone.
For more than a year the county has been fielding calls from angry citizens, most in the southern part of the county according to County administrator Percy Ashcraft.
"We don't wish any ill will on the landfill. They're a business and they're an important business down there. But our citizens constantly have an odor around their homes and it's to the point many of them can't go outside" he said.
Davis knows that first hand, the father of a four-year old girl says on days the odor is extremely strong "I don't let her come out and play we keep her in the house".
Edith Ellis describes the smell as "rotten eggs or leaves burning but it's a terrible smell".
Ashcraft said he learned late Wednesday the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had issued a notice of violation, he said "because of some leachate issues and some other things that are happening down there."
Sussex County landfill
Ashcraft knows the odor personally, having lived in the southern part of the county but said "some days you can smell it all the way up here around the courthouse complex".
CBS 6 reached out to the landfill but we were told there were no managers on duty and none could be contacted due to the holiday.
Back in January, the parent company of the landfill, Waste Management gave CBS 6 a timeline to have some of the problems corrected, including by this past October to have a temporary 30 acre cap in place and to have expanded the gas extraction system as well.
Residents said the odor problem has not gotten any better.
