ODESSA, Fla. — "It smells like rotting, putrid trash, manure," said Odessa neighbor Carla Card.
Card wakes up to the smell and the noise every morning.
"Sometimes it smells like a Port-O-Potty. It's disgusting," she said. "I feel the heavy machinery shaking, the percussion from the movement and activity, goes straight through my body."
Now, the composting business called 'Poofessionals' right next to her home is being sued by Hillsborough County's Environmental Protection Committee.
"It's been almost three years and we're still fighting this and they've been out of compliance this whole time. No private citizen could be getting away with what they've gotten away with," said neighbor Mike Michelin.
The civil lawsuit cites "substantial ongoing and unresolved violations." The suit says the business boundary is now more than twice what's legally permitted and compost piles are too high.
It also says the site can "reasonably be expected to cause air or water pollution."
"I feel like the Environmental Protection Commission should be protecting our environment and I don't feel like they have been," said neighbor Carol Makryllos.
Still, the EPC is allowing the business to run as usual when it could have shut them down until in compliance.
Some neighbors like Cari Ann McCullough who owns horses and a business nearby appreciate the service.
"We are in an agriculturally based community here in Odessa and you see they are collecting debris from all of you homeowners," she said.
A service that neighbors like Card say they can do without.
"This place needs to be shut down. It's in the middle of a residential, beautiful neighborhood and it's an industrial, commercial business," said Card.
Owners Kim and Cody Martin did not return our phone calls.
