“It’s almost like a rancid meat smell when it happens and the odor permeates,” Tasca Ford General Manager Tom Moran said.
An unpleasant odor is creating unhappiness for residents and businesses like Tasca Ford in Berlin.
“I didn’t know where it was coming from at the time, but it was very pungent,” Berlin’s Lee Chiodo said.
Residents say the smell is coming from the nearby Bright Feeds food waste recycling facility that opened in 2023.
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Their mission is to convert food waste materials into renewable natural gas that they use as a fuel source to make animal feed.
“It comes across, and sometimes it’s here for hours, a better part of the day. We have customers that are out here let alone us. We can’t even come out here and enjoy a nice day like this to go for a walk or enjoy your lunch or something. You can’t be out here. The smell’s horrendous,” Tasca Ford’s Shawn McLaughlin said.
Tasca Ford is one of over 100 signatures on a petition urging officials to take action. In addition to the smell, residents have also referenced the facility’s loud noise, as reason for concern.
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In a statement, Bright Feeds said in part:
“…We studied our processes and implemented tools to reduce our sound impact to zero. Though we have been positively evaluated by the Connecticut DEEP and others, we are undertaking the same process now with these new concerns…”
“It’s not a daily thing, but two or three times a week. It’s overpowering,” Moran said.
Mclaughlin said within the past few months, he’s contacted the town and the state to try and get answers.
“Basically I was told that it was all legal. I had to contact I think it was the deep which I did, and I got told that there’s nothing wrong with this stuff that’s coming out of there. There’s not much they can do,” he said.
