Southern California air quality officials have issued three violation notices to one of Orange County’s public landfills in response to a spike in odor complaints from nearby Irvine residents.
South Coast Air Quality Management District officials said it received more than 130 public complaints since the start of the year about “rotten, sour, garbage-type odors” coming from the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill, a 725-acre facility capable of handling up to 11,500 tons of waste per day.
The agency said the complaints lodged against Bowerman, one of the largest landfills in the country, far outpace those received about the two other OC landfills. The Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano has received roughly 25 odor complaints this year, while Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea has had none.
“Occasional increases in odor complaints at solid waste disposal facilities, like landfills, are not unusual and can be caused by a range of factors, such as landfill operations, wind direction or speed, and other atmospheric conditions,” South Coast AQMD spokesperson Rainbow Yeung said in a statement. “Bowerman Landfill has been the subject of significantly more odor complaints recently.”
The agency said notices of violations may result in civil penalties should the facility fail to implement “effective measures to abate the odors.”
Tom Koutroulis, director of Orange County Waste & Recycling, said fluctuations in odor complaints are “often seasonal” and that the county is working with the agency to address the public’s concerns. Koutroulis said the county has instituted various mitigation measures to suppress the stink, including misting systems, industrial fans and soil to cover waste.
Koutroulis said he was surprised by the influx of complaints shared by AQMD, as the county did not collect as many complaints through its reporting system.
Increased complaints could be expected as more residents have settled into neighborhoods around Bowerman since the facility was founded in 1990, Koutroulis said. “Not many people lived around the landfill back then.”
OCWR spokesperson Francine Bangert said the county has received only four violation notices in total from South Coast AQMD, three for Bowerman and one Prima Deshecha. “We have not had any for at least 8 years, if not longer,” Bangert said.
South Coast AQMD noted there were also four permit condition violations in 2016, 2019 and 2022.
OCWR, which operates the county’s three major landfills, has implemented advanced technologies at Bowerman to capture methane emissions through its landfill improvement program. Since 2016, a power plant at the Bowerman Landfill has used methane recovered from the site to produce enough electricity for 26,000 homes in the county.
South Coast AQMD oversees air quality regulation across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as the Coachella Valley.
