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Firms waste site te wrinkles noses By STUART GORDON Pierson said Wednesday. See staff writer MANTECA— Curds and whe He said farmer Jerry DeGroot, might sound great in a nurse y who owns the property on which rhyme. r1 the cheese factory and the was[e- But when it comes to livingwater pond is located, has agreed next door to a 3 to submit a cleanup plan that will pond of the stuff ix to eliminate the pungent smell. ed in water, the smell is enough to Pierson said full compliance — bring tears to your eyes. g another way of saying the odor Just ask residents who live nuisance must be gone — is ex- 1992' near a pond where waste is dis- pe Weted hi July 1, case posed of from the A&J Foods mom- think it's a case of a small cheese-manufacturing operation that has d Pop sort of operation at 14318 S. Airport Way. industrial usinessintowitholut the "It is very, very bad at times," said one neighbor who asked waste treatment facilities being that her name not be usedupgraded to keep pace," Pierson . "We said. �h �" Ip'Ub@3i4NkiK4lNtut}!�!@diUliit3jlli= have to live out here and get As a result, the wastewater I�1''i tit >EU13f31ri'•3Ntilt; 3F along with our neighbors." pond has been overloaded with Summer evenings are thewaste worst, she said. product from the cheese. .11 making operation, he said. ts a little much when you DeGroot used to operate the have a house full of house guests cheese plant. He sold it a few in the evening during the sum- years ago to A&J Foods Inc. of mer and you have to close all the Southern California and leases windows and doors because the the plant to that firm. smell is so strong," she said. A&J Foods owner Greg Gaglio The cheese waste is disposed declined comment on the region- of through an underground pipe al water quality's charge that that leads to a pond about 1,000 waste water from the cheese "' feet east of Airport Way, accord- plant is the source of the odor. ing to Wayne Pierson, an engi- Chiron Corp., a pharmaceutical neer with the state Regional Wa- firm next to the cheese factory, ter Quality Control Board. produces waste water containing As much as 22,000 gallons of waste are discharged a day. yeast. But state water quality offi- cials don't believe the 2,500 gal. The board intervened in the Ions of waste Chiron produces a operation about two months ago week - the cause of the odor. after San Joaquin County health DeGrs oot said he isn't con- officials received numerous com- vinced that "all the odors can be plaints from Airport Way resi- blamed on the whey pond on our dents about the odors. property. Sometimes we can go "We inspected the site, and the for months without smelling any. odors are painfully obvious," thing."