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Routine maintenance at Hollister’s industrial wastewater treatment plant briefly caused a noticeable odor near the area, a local official said.
Following several complaints to the city about odor near the plant, the city’s attorney issued a cease-and-desist letter to Neil Jones Food Company, or San Benito Foods, on April 11. Drew Lander, district general manager of Sunnyslope County Water District, told BenitoLink that maintenance procedures were responsible for the stink.
The cannery contracts with the water district to operate the treatment plant, located on the west side of Hollister.
Water used for washing tomatoes and cannery equipment turns into sludge, Lander said. It’s sent down the storm drain system to the treatment plant, where it sits in a pond.
“It’s normal to have some odor when the sludging process happens,” Lander said. “Moving material around created the odor.”
The cannery is required to remove 2,000 dry tons of sludge from that pond every year, Lander said. The water district removed 4,000 tons two years ago, and this year the cannery hired a third party contractor to remove the sludge.
Lander said the contractor began the sludge removal in the beginning of April. The process the contractor used is called dredging, and involves suctioning sludge from the bottom of the pond, leaving behind water. The sludge, which can be repurposed for fertilizer, is hauled out, and this process may cause odor.
Hollister City Manager David Mirrione told BenitoLink that complaints described a “manure-like odor.” In addition to complaints made directly to Hollister City Council members, the city received 15 to 20 complaints and saw multiple social media posts about the odor, Mirrione said.
The cease-and-desist letter demanded an immediate end to the cannery’s vegetable waste removal and treatment at the wastewater plant. A cease-and-desist demand letter is different from a cease-and-desist order. The former is prepared by an attorney to express opposition and the latter is a court order.
Lander said if he had to guess, the strong odors were caused by contractors moving quickly to remove the sludge.
“The process that they engaged in this year is a common sludge removal process,” he said. “This contractor was so efficient that they removed sludge very quickly and made odors.”
Mirrione could not confirm whether the City Council had previously issued a cease-and-desist demand to the cannery before the April letter.
Asked if the city received a response from the cannery, Mirrione said, “Yes, the city is working in partnership with San Benito Foods to address the situation and to ensure that proactive measures are taken in an effort to reduce odors in the future.”
BenitoLink spoke to Don Carr, the cannery’s environmental health and safety manager, who apologized for the incident.
“We greatly appreciate the partnership we have with the city of Hollister,” Carr said. “And we are working closely with them to resolve any issues both now and moving forward.”
Lander said the water district keeps the city informed, and wished residents understood the smell was not due to a political process but an agricultural process.
“I wish the public could understand that process,” he said. “If you live in an agricultural area, there are odors associated with it.”
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