GRAFTON – The Attorney General’s Office has filed a lawsuit against Feedback Earth, which processes unwanted food into ingredients for animal feed.
“These fetid odors have woken neighbors from their sleep, forced them to close windows at their homes, caused businesses to send employees home, kept children from their backyards, and caused nausea, headaches, and difficulty breathing,” Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wrote in the complaint.
The Attorney General’s Office announced that the lawsuit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 17.
“Diverting food waste from disposal and repurposing it for animal feed and other uses is important for both our solid waste and climate goals,” said Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bonnie Heiple. “Ensuring that companies operate in ways that protect the health of their neighbors and the environment is of the utmost importance, and the state looks forward to putting an end to the conditions causing these odor issues.”
The allegations revolve around the “noxious” odors being generated from Feedback and spreading up to at least 4.6 miles away.
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Feedback Earth operates a facility at 109 Creeper Hill Road, which it purchased in 2021. According to the complaint, the site abuts industrial properties and has several neighborhoods located within a mile away.
According to the complaint, Feedback Earth entered into an Administrative Consent Order with Penalty with the DEP in 2022 to address violations from 2021 to 2022. Among the provisions in the order, there were prohibitions on the outdoor storage or handling of food materials; nuisance odors being emitted; and a requirement to notify DEP before it accepted materials that could generate odors, establish a hotline to report odors and follow an odor response plan.
The AG said that DEP issued four stipulated penalty demands for violations of the order from between December 2022 to March 2024.
According to the complaint, since the last demand – which took place on March 6 – and through late June, “Feedback Earth continued to cause odors around the Facility that resulted in eighteen more odor complaints from residents.”
“The complainants reported that, as a result of these disgusting odors, they were unable to enjoy outdoor activities, including gardening, yard work, walking, and sitting outside,” the complaint read. “Other complainants reported nausea and migraines, and that they were forced to keep windows closed.”
Around June 26, people began reporting a “significant change in Feedback Earth’s odors, including an increase in the frequency and severity of the impacts and a shift in the character of the odor toward seafood-related odors.”
According to the complaint, Feedback Earth had begun to accept and process discarded lobster shells, failing to report it in advance to DEP. There were reportedly 274 complaints to the hotline between June 26 to Sept. 14 in addition to direct complaints about the company.
DEP staff inspected the facility multiple times since late June and detected “intense, revolting odors.” According to the complaint, there was the odor of moldy bread and spoiled seafood inside and outside, and the source of it included tons spoiled or decaying food waste that was delivered, significant quantities of lobster shells, over 200 pallets that were soaked in “lobster juice” and about 100 cubic yards of ground up lobster shells on the floor of the facility.
The AG’s office charges that Feedback Earth violated the Massachusetts Clean Air Act and Massachusetts Solid Waste Management Act and created a public nuisance, including by creating a condition of air pollution, failing to comply with plan approval, storing and handling food materials outdoors, failing to notify DEP, and the illegal acceptance and storage of solid waste.
The attorneys further allege Feedback Earth has stored food material outside of its facility and that since about November 2021, the company has accepted “spoiled and unauthorized food waste” and failed to manage the material it processes, leading to unsanitary conditions, offsite odors and the creation of human health risks.
The Attorney General is seeking a preliminary injunction for Feedback Earth to immediately stop bringing any solid waste and other unauthorized material into the facility; take DEP-directed action to abate such a nuisance; stop creating a public nuisance through the odor emissions; and comply with its plan approval, Recycling, Composting or Conversion Permit; the administrative consent order and IOMP.
After judgement, the AG is asking the court to permanently comply with these terms and enter a judgment for civil penalties under the Clean Air Act for up to $25,000 a day per violation and civil penalties for violation of the Solid Waste Act for up to $25,000 a day per violation.
