Pacific Sun, June 26, 2002The Big Stink
Mushroom Farm asks (again) for a permit extensionPetalumas big P.U.
Neighbors turn up noses at farm's compost
BY BILL MEAGHER AND PETER SEIDMAN
Hurry up and wait. That would describe the plight of people living near the Petaluma Mushroom Farm, which produces 100,000 pounds of button and portobello 'shrooms a week, and is scheduled to shut down its composting operation July 1 - by order of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.
But the Petaluma farm's owner, Dave Cerini, has asked the Board of Supervisors to allow the farm's Thompson Lane composting facility to continue for at least another six months, according to Cerini's attorney, Eric Koenigshofer. The composting operation has become a big stink, literally, for Thompson Lane neighbors, who have had to live with the smell of odoriferous decomposition for almost two decades.
For Cerini and the farm, the hunt for a new composting site is akin to the search for Valhalla. Cerini already has purchased two pieces of land in Sonoma County for the composting operation site, only to watch the projects fail because of problems with increased traffic and, of course, neighborhood opposition.
The mushroom farm currently operates on a 6-acre plot of land at 782 Thompson Lane. A neighbor, who lives on nearby Magnolia Street, says the mushroom farm's composting operation sends a nastily pungent scent wafting through the neighborhood every day. Local residents are asking the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to stand by its January decision to insist that the farm shut down the composting operation.
The Petaluma Mushroom Farm has been in business since 1973. Its location on Thompson Lane is what planners call rural/residential. Cerini owns the business, which grows and ships mushrooms to supermarkets such as Safeway, United Markets, Whole Foods and Albertson's, as well as some smaller markets. The mushrooms also wind upon the plates of diners in pizza parlors and restaurants throughout the North Bay.
The problem for the neighbors is simple: To produce all those mushrooms, the farm ' needs to process a whopping 500 tons of compost a week; and according to the neighbors, the stench from all that decomposing material is simply overwhelming.
Koenigshofer says the farm has made a sincere effort to meet the concerns of the neighbors and move the composting operation to an alternative site in the county. Koenigshofer now says the mushroom farm may just move the composting operation out of Sonoma County. "We have found a site in another county where the compost will be processed and then transported to Thompson Lane."
Koenigshofer declines to give any details about the proposed site. "We have learned our lesson from all of the opposition we had...." But, he adds, before the mushroom farm moves the composting operation out, it will once again ask the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for another stay of execution. "When we go before supervisors, we will give them all the details of why we think this will work and why they should give the farm an extension."
They will have a chance to do that July 23, when the Board of Supervisors has put the question of whether to grant the mushroom farm an extension on the supervisors' agenda. The item is set for July 23 because Supervisor Mike Kerns, who represents Petaluma, is on vacation and will not return until mid-July. (The farm will be allowed to operate between the July 1 cutoff date and July 23.)
Koenigshofer won't be alone in going before the supervisors. Neighbors promise to show up with a sizable contingent to argue that the county needs to stick to its guns and reject the farm's request for an extension. "There are a lot of incensed neighbors right now, to say the least. We have had enough of the schemes and promises and failures with this over the years," a neighbor says.
Supervisor Kerns is on the record as saying he strongly favors moving the composting operation out of Thompson Lane. But he also has said he would be reluctant to pull the plug on the composting operation if it means putting the farm out of business.
In addition to its odor problem, the farm has a history of problems with the California Regional Water Quality Board, which cited the operation for illegally discharging wastewater containing the pesticide Diazinon. The citation charged that instead of trucking its wastewater off the Thompson Lane property for treatment, the farm was spraying the wastewater onto saturated ground, which allowed it to run off into the local watershed. The Water Quality Board also charged that the farm used a pipeline to carry some of the wastewater directly into Marin Creek.
The mushroom farm also has run afoul of county zoning ordinances on more than one occasion. In 1994, the county cited the farm for failing to obtain a permit to add a second story to a building. Then, in 1995, the county determined that the farm was violating its use permit in such a gross manner that county officials considered revoking it.
The farm kept its use permit, but in 1999 the mushroom farm once again ran into trouble with county ordinances when it asked permission to expand its 66-per-son workforce by 50 people, which would have allowed the farm to legally employ 116 people.
The county didn't go the distance, but it did grant the farm permission to add 34 new employees. The problem was, according to county tax records, Cerini already had increased his payroll: He was employing 113 people, 29 more employees than the county had approved.
In addition to the overabundance of employees, overzealous building plans, wastewater violations and problems with noxious odors, the farm has stirred the neighborhood to action because of what area residents say is a profligate use of pesticides and excessive noise emanating from farm equipment.
A neighbor says the Water Quality Control Board won't give her a straight answer on whether the farm is in compliance with water-quality regulations, or whether the Water Quality Control Board has followed up on its enforcement of the compliance orders it already has issued. "I have sent 17 e-mails, made two phone calls and even went to a board meeting to try to get an answer," she says.
Will Bruhns, a spokesperson with the Water Quality Control Board, says his agency is a busy place, so the neighbor may be right about the board's lack of response. "But, the farm is in compliance with the issues we had with them. The last time the neighbor was here, she spoke to the board about the compost and the smell, which is not a water-related issue, and so we can't help her with that."
Neighbors are counting on the Sonoma supervisors doing something about the stench, however, and to do it right away.
Koenigshofer, who happens to be a former Sonoma County supervisor, thinks the board may grant his client a six-month delay. "If it comes down to a choice of giving the farm another six months to move and then the problem is gone, or putting 50 breadwinners out on the street and shutting it down, I'm hoping the supervisors will make the right call."
You can reach Bill Meagher and Peter Seidman at meagher_seidman@yahoo.com.