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North St. Louis Residents Want Foul-Smelling Farm Out Of Neighborhood

Tullia and Irvin Hamilton have lived at their house on Windermere Place for about 20 years. They’ve gone out to their backyard less due to the odors from Perennial City’s farm.
Credit Eli Chen | St. Louis Public Radio

Perennial City Composting co-founder Tim Kiefer has been composting chicken manure at his farm just north of Delmar Boulevard. Several neighbors claim it’s caused offensive odors.

By Eli Chen
ST Louis Public Radio
June 21, 2020

Excerpt:

About a year ago, Jermell Hasson Williams called the police because he smelled a terrible odor and thought someone might have died in the vacant house next door.

Instead, he discovered that the strong rancid odors were coming from a two-acre farm nearby owned by a local urban agriculture company, Perennial City Composting.

Williams and his neighbors in the Visitation Park area north of Delmar Boulevard claim that the smell is coming from composted chicken manure. They’ve asked city officials to move the farm out of the neighborhood.

“It smells so bad I can’t open my windows no more for fresh air,” said Williams, 33. “It’s the same problem on the other side of the street. People can’t use their backyard for holidays. This community, people been wearing masks way before COVID-19 due to the smell.”

Read the complete article here.