Locals fed up with smelly situation next door

People in one Yuma block say a neighbor’s backyard is ruining their neighborhood with a horrible stench.

The residents that live along that street want that terrible odor to go away.

Since November, residents along South Avenue 5 E have been complaining about a terrible odor that keeps drifting in their direction.

“The first time I saw a truck load, it was a big semi with an opened bed in the back just full,” said Julie Evans about the situation. “You can see a mound on top of the bed what looked like chopped up vegetables.”

Evans is one of the several neighbors that filed multiple complaints to the city and other agencies.

The horrible smell, according to neighbors is from the backyard of a home that is on the same street.

“It is awful. It actually smells like diarrhea and vomit. When it comes on it’s so potent that you have to run in the house, close the windows, close the doors, and sometimes it even seeps into the house,” said Judy Edmondson.

Residents describe the operation as a sort-of composting, but in large volumes.

“Now in months since then, I know that they have a compost heat back there. So their adding water to these rotting nasty vegetables and that smell is coming up into the air,” said Evans.

The owner of the home says once they became aware of the whiff, they jumped into action.

“We’ve used any method we can. Any method we can to try to contain it. We do care. We do care about our neighbors and what they think. As soon as it is brought to our attention we immediately started researching and having people come out. There has been different authorities out that we’ve personally contacted to come check it out to make sure that everything was safe,” said Cindy Hall.

Hall is quick to point out that they have complied with all the city requests.

“Everyday someone from the city drives by here to check and make sure we are in compliance.”

But it’s not just the residents in the area. The city of Yuma recently took issue with the smelly situation on various different visits.

“This was a mistake. It’s not allowed in there and the owner fully admits he didn’t know what he was getting into and it’s been a big mistake. We have on the code enforcement side, we have cited him. He has been cited multiple times. In fact he has gotten many letters,” said City Administrator Greg Wilkinson.

However, residents still question if the stench will ever go away.

“We were told by the city that he was instructed to have it removed by April 2. That’s another two months that we got to tolerate it. We want it out of here, ” said Edmondson.

The owner is insisting that they are trying to make things right. She says when the compost is not combustible they will be removing it.