Hollister neighbors asking ‘What is that smell?’

A smelly odor is consuming parts of one central coast city. It’s so bad some residents in Hollister won’t even go outside and others want to move out completely.

It’s a very strong smell coming from ponds that hold tomato waste from a cannery company, called San Benito Foods. During this time of year, bacteria eats up the waste. The problem this year is there is more waste than there is bacteria. Residents told News Channel 5 the smell has never been this bad.

“It smells really horrible. It feels like your nose is like burning off or something,” said Genevieve Egbert.

So bad that when Egbert isn’t on her way out, she’s holed up inside her home.

“You’ve got to close all the windows. You can’t leave the doors open for very long,” she said.

That’s because the smell of decomposing tomato waste from the ponds and sewer pipes is blowing into her neighborhood.

“Horrible,” said Stacey Hungeat. “It smells like sewer waste, just not good.”

For new Hollister residents like Stacey Hungeat, she questions whether living here was a good move.

“When there’s more waste than there is bacteria to handle, that is what you smell, the decomposing tomato waste,” said Manuel Molina, project manager for Veolia Water. “It’s the same smell you would smell in your refrigerator if you let a tomato sit in there forever.”

Veolia Water is contracted by the city to operate the Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility. Just Friday, the cannery discharged two million gallons of tomato waste into the ponds.

From mid July to mid October, the facility receives the waste water from the San Benito Foods tomato processing facility.

“The flows coming in had come in more quickly than the bacteria are able to assimilate to that new environmental condition,” Molina said.

Due to the lack of rain, the bacteria is having a hard time playing catchup, causing the stench. Even though the process happens every year, Egbert said the smell is a lot worse this year.

“I kind of want to move to be honest. Move out of here so it doesn’t have this effect anymore,” she said.

Plant operators said residents will have to deal with the stench for at least another week, since it takes about 15 to 21 years for this naturally-occurring process to happen every year.

San Benito Foods is a big economic resource to the Hollister community, employing more than 300 people.