Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan The city of Hermiston on Monday entered an agreement with Carter and Wyatt Holdings LLC on Highway 207 for how to deal with odor complaints from the facility.

The Hermiston City Council on Monday settled on a new way to handle the odor coming from a fruit and vegetable storage facility off Highway 207 that has been the source of complaints in the past few months.

The agreement will allow the city to inspect the property more quickly, and dismisses the existing case against the company.

After an executive session to discuss a settlement, the council voted unanimously to enter a judgment with the Hermiston company Carter and Wyatt Holdings, and Luke Dynes, a member of the company and owner of the plant. Dynes said in November 2017 that the plant keeps around 1.6 million tons of food out of landfills each year, taking fruit and vegetable byproduct and selling it to dairies and feedlots around the U.S.

The plant, located at 78227 Highway 207, has faced fines for violating Hermiston’s nuisance code. According to the judgment, the defendants will have until July 20 to remove certain agricultural materials that have been causing odors. Products including carrots, potatoes, grape pomace, onions and other organic materials, cannot be on the property for more than 12 hours, and must stay in a truck. The judgment also lists the materials that are allowed on the property, which include hay, straw, dry seed, grain and corn silage.

If the company does not comply with those rules, the city can inspect the property with only a 12-hour notice, and can fine the company $8,000 per day.

“It just allows the city another tool to deal with routine odor violations,” said Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann.

City Manager Byron Smith said the judgment is an enhanced tool, as it allows the city to circumvent the nuisance code and inspect the property without going through the entire process of waiting for three or more complaints within 12 hours.

Dynes said he felt that the city and he worked together to find a common solution.

“I think the goal for us and the city is what’s best for us and the community,” he said. “I think it worked out well.”

The city and Dynes ran into several road blocks over the past few months. There were challenges trying to figure out how to use city code to stop odor problems. The rule in Hermiston is that an oral or written comment from more than three people in 12 hours violates the nuisance code.

Dynes was fined $435 in September for violating Hermiston’s nuisance code, and ordered to abate the smell. Citizens had been submitting complaints for about four months prior to that. The company, Carter and Wyatt Holdings LLC, was also issued $29,534 fine from the Department of Environmental Quality in November.

The plant is due west from a proposed master planned housing project called The Hayfields, which is working with the city to develop mixed-use residential homes off Feedville.