Mayor to file landfill smell suit Wed.

JOHNSTON, R.I. (WPRI) - The mayor of Johnston plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday over the increasingly foul odor at the Central Landfill.

"No one seems to have the answers and I'm getting really upset at that," a frustrated Mayor Joseph Polisena told Eyewitness News Tuesday.

"This is a chronic problem. It doesn't happen every other week or every ten days. It's happening every day."

The problem is trash decomposing in an active area of the landfill, which is run by the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation.  The decomposing trash produces hydrogen sulfide which creates a rotten egg smell that spreads throughout the nearby community.

The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation is in the process of making multiple changes at the landfill to help eliminate the odor.  Workers are drilling new collection wells where the gas can be gathered.  The gas in the collection wells can then either be burned off or sent elsewhere and used to produce electricity.  But Mayor Polisena insists more needs to be done.

"It's got to stop.  It's got to stop. And as I'm saying to them, you should have ten flares up there burning off the gas."

The mayor says he hopes the lawsuit will put pressure on the operators of the landfill to eliminate the foul smell.