The odors coming from the Broward County landfill have subsided, much to the relief of residents in the neighboring communities of Pompano Beach and Coconut Creek.
Waste Management officials attempted to fix the long-standing, complaint-creating problem by layering the mound with extra dirt to bury the stink.
When that didn’t work completely, they resorted to blowing a deodorizer to mask the stink at the landfill — often called Mount Trashmore. They recently began using a gas-removal system that draws out the elements likely to smell foul.
County officials said they are pleased with the progress in treating the odors, which come from trash collected in Broward County and imported from other places throughout Florida.
“It’s certainly much, much better than it was,” said Rick Wilkins, director of the county’s Planning and Environmental Protection Department’s Division of Pollution and Prevention and Remediation. “It was really bad last year at this time. But I’m not saying it’s perfect. It’s still a landfill.”
Steve Jacobs, the landfill site manager, and Becky Eatmon, the landfill’s district manager, did not return several telephone calls seeking comment.
Earlier this year, at the request of Coconut Creek officials, Pompano Beach commissioners declared that the stench radiating from the 600-acre dump had “objectionable and obnoxious odors” that hamper economic development.
The problems had been so bad that Waste Management was fined $30,000 for violating air standards. The county recently turned the money over to Coconut Creek, which county officials say bore the brunt of the odor. Coconut Creek officials said they would use the money for beautification projects.
The countysaid since late last year, Waste Management has attempted to mask the smell by placing dirt on the debris. “It worked to a certain extent,” Wilkins said. “It’s a situation where you pile all this dirt on there, you’re trying to hold the gases down, but they will eventually break through.”
So then the company started using deodorizing sprays from 55-gallon drums, he said.
“I guess it helped,” Wilkins said. “That was basically a temporary solution. But they had a more fundamental issue they had to deal with.”
That, he said, is the problem of what was being stored in the landfill — a lot of gypsum wallboard construction debris.
Those decomposing materials are prone to smell “like rotten eggs” when they are buried, Wilkins said.
So, at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars, the landfill installed a gas collection system. A series of pipes were buried in the landfill to suck the gas that causes the odor out of the landfill through a vacuum pump. The gas is then burned.
City leaders are pleased there has been an improvement.
“It was hot and heavy there for a while,” said Pompano Beach Mayor Bill Griffin, adding that he hasn’t heard any complaints in months.
Coconut Creek Vice Mayor Marilyn Gerber, whose home is less than two miles from the landfill, said the stench was so bad it often forced her indoors. She now notices the difference, too, but said it’s not perfect.
“It doesn’t smell like roses,” she said. “They are trying, however, every once in a while there’s still an odor.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at or 954-356-4557.
