Odor complaints dip, so Shawnee Council approves special-use permit for JoCo landfill

The Shawnee City Council has granted an 18-month extension to Deffenbaugh Industries’ permit to operate the Johnson County Landfill as the number of odor complaints from nearby residents has declined.

Council members on Monday unanimously approved extending the company’s special-use permit for the landfill at the southwest corner of Holliday Drive and Interstate 435 to May 2020.

During a planning commission meeting earlier this month, city officials said Deffenbaugh, which is now a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., had reduced complaints about smell and roadside litter.

The city received 243 odor complaints about the landfill in 2017, a decrease from 415 the year before. Through the first nine months of 2018, the number of complaints fell to 86, with most of the complaints coming from the Lake Quivira area.

Waste Management also has taken steps that have eliminated complaints about trash along I-435, Shawnee Mission Parkway and Holliday Drive or mud near the landfill’s entrance, officials said.

The company said it expects odor complaints to further decline as it fills up the current section for household and commercial waste over the next 18 months and then moves to a new cell west and farther from Lake Quivira in 2020. The area that takes in yard waste, currently in the southern end of the landfill, is also moving 300 feet to the north.

The landfill was the source of near-constant odor complaints in 2015 and 2016 before the city commissioned a study from Blackstone Environmental of Overland Park to pinpoint the sources of the smell and recommend solutions. The researchers determined that composting operations in the southern part of the landfill and unusually high rainfall had contributed to the problem.

The Johnson County Health and Environment Department is also conducting more frequent inspections of the landfill.

One resident on Monday did complain to the council about odors he believed were coming from the landfill.

Dan Fenton said he smelled a foul odor on Thanksgiving Day while biking on the Gary L. Haller Trail west of the landfill, which he said is a regular occurrence when he bikes in the area.

“I wish the city could do something to make Waste Management manage the landfill better because I don’t remember problems like this when Deffenbaugh managed the landfill,” Fenton said.

Mayor Michelle Distler asked Fenton if he had reported the smell, and he said he didn’t know there was a way to do that. Distler reminded residents to use either the Shawnee Connect mobile application or to call City Hall to report an odor, which officials can then investigate and track.

“We’re trying to keep it under control,” she said.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to increase the industrial bonds being issued for ServiceMaster DSI to develop a 46,323-square-foot commercial facility at 8450 Cole Parkway. The council in March agreed to issue $3.4 million in bonds for the project, but the company has requested increasing that amount to $4.5 million.

As part of the agreement, the developer also will avoid paying a portion of future property taxes on the project over the next 10 years.

This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Odor complaints dip, so Shawnee Council approves special-use permit for JoCo landfill."