KEITHVILLE, LA (KSLA) - Central Monument Co. employees in Keithville are learning the source of a foul odor, after being fed up with having to deal with it wafting over from the property next door.
When KSLA News 12 first visited Central Monument Company last week, no one dared take a deep breath, because of a bad smell coming from a neighboring property.
"It smelled like a landfill or something, it was bad," said employee Jerod King at the time.
Employees say the smell has been reoccurring for years, but that day it was particularly bad. Now, one week later, employee Kristi Garsee says it's a different story.
"Much better, we don't smell it anymore," said employee Kristi Garsee.
ASA Pumping LLC owner Russell Dean told us over the phone, he owns the property to store grease from restaurants in tanks.
"The fitting came unloose while I was on top of the trailer watching the water level, I had to climb down and shut everything off, but the material spilled on the ground," he explained.
The hot temperatures and exposed liquid created the odor.
"It's animal fat and residue, a majority of what spilled was water," he said.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality began looking into the situation after our story aired.
"We did go out there and investigated," said La DEQ Press Secretary Greg Langley.
The property owner has since cleaned up the mess.
"The residue that was left was cleaned up fairly easily. The odor was the only drawback," Dean said.
According to Langley, Dean vacuumed up all the liquid they could get.
"Then they got a contractor to come out and remove the saturated dirt and take it for disposal," Langley said.
Garsee is happy about the efforts.
"He got it all cleaned up and worked out here all day, we appreciate that," she said. "As long as it doesn't affect our business or contaminate our property, in any way and we don't have to smell it, we are okay with whatever he is doing over there," said Garsee.
Dean believes the whole situation has been blown out of proportion.
"It is zoned industrial, it is industrial businesses that operate in the area. Not illegal. The spill was contained, didn't get into environment. Nothing was harmed."
However, according to Langley, the investigation is still ongoing. DEQ staffers have requested paperwork from Dean, as part of their investigation.
Langley isn't clear about when the investigation will be completed.
"It doesn't happen automatically, it has to be typed in by hand, so it takes a little while," he said.
Once the report is complete, Langley says it will be routed to their enforcement division to see if there will be any further action.
According to the Louisiana Secretary of State's business filings, ASA Pumping LLC is not in good standing for failure to file annual report. The last report the LLC filed was March 4, 2015.
A search of the permits granted to ASA Pumping LLC by LA DEQ, reveal the company has held a bio solids permit to haul sewage sludge since 2010.
Their latest permit expired June 30, 2016. According to Dean, the sewage sludge hauler permit has nothing to do with the grease trapped waste from restaurants that caused the smell on July 11, 2016.
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