Residents: 'Yuck, we've smelled this before'

SNOHOMISH COUNTY -- Residents in Marysville are holding their noses yet again.

Cedar Grove Composting company in Marysville was cited for four odor violations in June by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency after area residents complained of smells wafting into their homes, the Everett Herald reported. Odor violations for the company are nothing new, and the large composting plant has received 13 odor violations in the past five years, with the company fined as much as $169,000 for odor violations in 2011.

Much of Snohomish and King County's food and yard waste heads to Cedar Grove, which collects the waste, cures it and then resells it for compost in gardens. Smells from the plant, located on Smith Island, often increases in the summer as temperature heats up and the waste becomes more potent.

But according to the Herald, Cedar Grove officials said other sources could cause the odors.

"Our on-site electronic odor monitoring system indicated that no detectable odors left our property during the time cited," Cedar Grove Spokeswoman Susan Thoman said in an email to the Herald. "We plan to share this monitoring information with the agency."

Cedar Grove plans to release results of an extensive smell study later this year.