Complaint - Template

	Name
Select	John Roosa
Select	Boone County Sanitary Landfill
Select	LOIS POWERS
Select	BOONE COUNTY
Select	BOONE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISERS
Select	JOHN ROOSA
Select	HLW Engineering Group
Select	HLW Engineering Group
Select	Boone County Landfill
Select	Iowa DNR
Select
Select	SCOTT SMITH

Complaint ID - 36880

Boone County Landfill - 310200505

1268 224th Lane Boone, IA 50036

Boone County

FO 5

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36880

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Statement of Complaint:

From: Brian Parrish <BrianLParrish@outlook.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 11, 2026 at 10:00?PM
Subject: County landfill stench
To: jroosa@boonecounty.iowa.gov <jroosa@boonecounty.iowa.gov>, etrarp@boonecounty.iowa.gov <etrarp@boonecounty.iowa.gov>, Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov <Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov>, michael.sullivan@dnr.iowa.gov <michael.sullivan@dnr.iowa.gov>, brian.rath@dnr.iowa.gov <brian.rath@dnr.iowa.gov>, ekretzinger@boonecounty.iowa.gov <ekretzinger@boonecounty.iowa.gov>
Cc: slonghorn@boonecounty.iowa.gov <slonghorn@boonecounty.iowa.gov>

Good evening,
I was visiting my family who lives within less than 1 mile of the Boone County landfill today, and I was surprised by the strength of the landfill odor. The smell of garbage was noticeable throughout much of the day, and as I write this around 9:35 p.m., it is still very strong.  As a visitor to the area, I found it surprising that the odor could be detected from nearly a mile away. It was impossible not to notice.  I was under the impression that the county’s landfill operations included covering the trash on a daily basis to help control odors. If that is the case, it does not appear to be working as intended.  I understand that some odor is probably unavoidable from time to time, but the level of odor I experienced today seems excessive and is not what I would expect for nearby residents or visitors.  I also realize that one email from one person is unlikely to change the county’s direction or priorities. Perhaps this message will simply be read and set aside. Even so, I felt it was important to let you know that the odor is significant enough for someone visiting the area to notice it from nearly a mile away.  Nearby residents deserve better than this.  I hope the county will look into this issue and take whatever additional steps are necessary to better control the odor.
Brian Parrish, Johnston IA

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Responsible Party

BOONE COUNTY SANITARY LANDFILL (Owner)

Report

Attached Files/Reports

File Name	File Type	File Date	Note

Comments

Date	Comment	Commenter
7/30/2026	The Iowa DNR does not regulate odor. I will follow-up, however, with a site visit this quarter.	BILL GROSS
7/13/2026	John Roosa, landfill manager, sent the complainant this message: hank you for the message. Please know that I do take matters like this seriously and do not look to ignore or discard them. Regarding the landfill odor, I'd like to address some things that may have impacted the situation: Our yard waste area is located on the NW corner of our property, and that organic material will often create strong odors. With all of our recent rains, there was a good amount of standing water in that area the last several days. Earlier today, I had a couple operators work to address that wet area and move the piles of yard debris, which should address the odors coming from that location. We provide landfill services for waste from Ames & Story County when necessary, and lately they have been sending a great deal of waste to us. This has been occurring for years, but it has been excessive in recent times. The extra waste presents additional challenges for staff to handle on a daily basis. We will be ending our agreement with Ames & Story County in the near future for accepting their waste at our landfill. This will happen on July 1, 2027. While Boone County did receive significant rains over the last couple months, Story County received even more extreme amounts. Flooded basements and homes caused a large amount of wet waste to come to the landfill, much of it being odorous. That garbage, along with regular trash and waste being wet, further causes the development of strong odors. We have been excavating soil from our lower waterways and relocating that to cover garbage, which is situated closer to the north end of our property. With that soil coming from stagnant water areas, there are likely odors coming from that as well. You mentioned in your email that the landfill operations included covering the trash on a daily basis, which is correct. We have options for daily cover, including 6" of soil, a spray material, and tarps. Considering our current issue of limited available air space, we often choose to use tarps and spray material in order to save air space. We do still apply soil cover when needed. We are in the process of constructing our final permitted cell, which is located on the southern end of the property, much further away than our current working face location near the northern end. Once that cell is completed, we will have more opportunities to move the active waste area further away from our neighbors to the northwest. With that said, there are several factors that most likely contributed to the situation. I will work with our landfill operators to address the above issues, and I will have further discussions with our landfill engineers to explore other options to address the odor concern.	BILL GROSS

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Compliance Tracking

Action Type	Date	Completed Date	Comment	Delete

Multiple Results Found

Field Office Compliance - Complaint

Complaint ID - 36880

Boone County Landfill - 310200505

1268 224th Lane Boone, IA 50036

Boone County

FO 5

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