What’s that smell in northern Scott County?

SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) — Something stinks in northern Scott County and it’s been a big problem for people living there.

The smell is coming from the Central Kentucky Landfill.

The state is ordering Waste Services of the Bluegrass to fix the problem.

“The stench is just something terrible and I can’t describe it, I really cannot describe it,” says neighbor to the landfill, Linda Stacy.

The landfill is across the street from her home, where she says she’s lived for 46 years, and the smell wasn’t always this bad.

“We didn’t have any smell, we didn’t have garbage all over the roads, we weren’t run off the roads,” says Stacy. “Now we’ve got 18-wheelers that are covered with garbage that are throwing garbage.”

Stacy says the smell coming from the landfill is something her and her neighbors have been complaining to the county, and state about, these last few years.

“You just don’t want to go outside,” she says. “I went to raise my windows when it was a warm day and I said ‘nuh-uh’.”

The state says after finding violations it’s ordered WSB to fix the issues.

“Primarily what the agreed order states is that we will install additional wells, gas extraction wells, and increase our monitoring around the landfill to make sure the gas extraction wells are doing the job they’re designed to do,” says chief operating officer of WSB, Greg Elkins.

He says it has 14 wells on the landfill and it’s adding 16 more, a $1.5 million project.

“You will see immediately a diminished odor issue I think in about 2 weeks,” says Elkins.

He says the smell is from the waste decomposing, creating the gases.

Elkins says these wells will essentially vacuum out the gas.

The Scott County judge-executive’s office says there’s been over 400 complaints about the landfill’s smell just in this past year.

“Once it’s in your house or you walk outside it’s in your mouth,” says Stacy.

The state issued the order on March 13th.

The company has 60 days to comply.