Simi Valley landfill gets rotting food from warehouse fire, raising foul odor complaints from neighbors

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Set us as preferred Millions of pounds of rancid rotting food cleared from a burned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights are now raising complaints from Simi Valley residents who say they’re grappling with the stench of the decomposing waste that was dumped into a nearby landfill.At one point, one resident said, the smell of rot was so strong they believed a wild animal had died on a nearby hiking trail.

“We had the smell of rotten eggs or rotten meat,” said George Khalatian, president of the Big Sky homeowners association in Simi Valley.Last week, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District issued a notice of violation to Waste Management California, which operates the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center, after several residents complained about an overwhelming smell coming from the landfill after it received food waste from the Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights.

Inspectors from the agency investigated the site on Aug.11 and confirmed the foul smell was coming from the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center, according to the notice reviewed by The Times.

The two inspectors “noted the particular odor emanating from the dumping of putrescent food waste,” according to the notice.California So far this week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued four notices of violations to the company related to the putrid odor at the cleanup site.Waste Management California did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The stench is similar to what residents in Boyle Heights have said they’ve endured for more than two months after a fire broke out in the massive cold-storage warehouse in June.Since then, the company has been working to remove approximately 88 million pounds of rotting food, including meat and fish that was stored inside.

The rotting food has drawn swarms...