When Does Meijer Dairy Smell Bad?
The City of Tipp City has requested that residents report "odor events" so that they can tie the "odor event" to when Meijer is performing certain operations at the dairy plant.
Number of Complaints Submitted to City since 3/18/21: 446
UPDATE: Meijer Stank ReportMeijer Dairy had until December 31, 2019 to comply with these orders. In fact, they have yet to present the City of Tipp City with a project plan from which they are working on to fix the problem. UPDATE 3/18/2021 – Meijer Dairy has signed a Consent Order where they presented an updated plan on taking care of the BOD’s and the odors.
So what’s the problem?
Well, it’s two-fold. Meijer Dairy has been pumping 2-3x the amount of waste regulated into the Tipp City sewer system. They were to be pumping no more than 100,000 gallons a day. There are some technical terms involved with all of this. The City calls these “BOD’s” or Biological Oxygen Demand materials. Essentially, the sour/rotten milk requires oxygen to be pumped into it to break it down so it no longer smells like rotting flesh. Meijer has consistently been shirking their responsibility to treat this material and instead is flushing it into the City’s sanitary sewer, where it must be treated by TCA.
The second issue is that when this untreated sewage is pumped into the City sewers, the smell is akin to rotting flesh.
That smell is so powerful that the breeze blows it across 25A to the East, and into the Cedar Grove subdivision to the Southwest. Residents in the Cedar Grove community must shutter their windows, close doors and turn on AC to pump the smell out of their homes. Most evenings, it is unbearable to stay outside during the evenings when Meijer is “airing out” their milk plant by opening up the 16″ garage doors.
The total fine that Meijer Dairy / Purple Cow Creamery is paying each day for this infraction? $1,000. UPDATE 3/18/2021 – Fines have escalated to $2,500/day up to $5,000/day with a continued violation.
The solution that Meijer suggested was to build an additional 300,000 gallon tank where the waste could be treated before being ejected into the City water system. To date, no construction or construction plan has been submitted to the City of Tipp City.
Want to read the orders that Meijer Dairy is under, and see the tens of thousands of dollars they are paying in order to stay out of compliance?