GRAHAM, Wash. — Graham resident Bradley Armstrong said when he first moved into the area by the LRI Landfill on Meridian Street, he didn’t smell anything.
But as the landfill expanded, things took a turn for the worse.
“It’s horrible! It’s absolutely horrible! There’s days that we come out, and I literally go back in my house because it smelled so bad,” Armstrong said. “The smell had gotten so bad that our community had to get involved and … give it to the county, and they told them to fix it and it’s still not fixed.”
Keith Johnston, Environmental Health specialist supervisor working with the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, said they’ve received dozens of complaints about the odor since last December, but he said residents don’t have to worry about the smell affecting their health.
“We don’t think it is a public health issue, it is a nuisance issue, and we’re doing everything we can with the landfill to try and get it to stop,” Johnston said.
Johnston said the landfill installed odor control wells and gas extraction wells to control the odors, but it will take some time for the smell to completely go away.
“It’s a living, breathing, biological system that isn’t going to change overnight,” Johnston explained. “It’s going to require some time for the systems they’re putting in to have an effect on the odor, but we have seen improvement.”
Meanwhile, Armstrong said an odor-free day can’t come soon enough.
“We live with it, and that’s what we have to do," he said.