There is no composting activity at the Los Alamtios Joint Forces Training Base and there are no plans to have any, according to Sgt. First Class Jessica Inigo, public information officer for the JFTB.
The possibility that the National Guard had revived the controversial composting project was first suggested when some area residents thought they caught an unpleasant odor on the wind.
“That nasty compost garbage smell is back with a vengeance the past several weeks along the Joint Forces Base in Los Al,” wrote Brian Mullally in a Thursday, Sept. 27, e-mail to the Sun.
Mullally said when the wind blew in the direction of his Garden Grove home, his wife would not go outside and would close the window.
“On my way to work this morning the garbage smell was heavy along Lampson in College Park East Seal Beach,” Mullally wrote. “I don’t know if they’re composting again or if it’s fertilizer, but it’s disgusting and has been going on for weeks.”
The Sun contacted Seal Beach City Councilman Gary Miller, who first fought against composting at the Training Base when the issue came up in 2009.
On Saturday, Sept. 29, Miller told the Sun that he contacted a Training Base representative who said there was no composting smell on the base—just a woodsy smell.
“In the past when the JFTB has spread mature compost there is a smell for a couple of days,” Miller said.
“I am continuing to monitor the situation,” Miller said.
The Sun also contacted the National Guard in Sacramento, who referred the Sun to Sgt. Inigo in Los Alamitos.
Inigo said composting had absolutely not begun on the base. She also said composting would not take place on the base any time soon.
Inigo was aware of complaints of an unpleasant odor from area residents. She said she was told that over the weekend, a sub-contractor dumped something—she did not say what—that has since been removed from the base.
Inigo said mulching was taking place on the base and said that mulching had a woodsy smell.
2009-2010: Green project makes citizens see red
The original project was a five-year pilot program to recycle so-called green waste at the Training Base. Residents of Seal Beach and other Orange County communities accused the Training Base of being a bad neighbor.
In May 2009, several Seal Beach residents told the City Council that they opposed the project.
In October 2009, the project was suspended indefinitely.
On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2009, the officials of five local communities sent a letter to the Secretary of the Army, asking him to cancel the contract for the pilot composting project.
The project was permanently canceled in late March. “The California National Guard is exercising the cancellation clause contained within the Memorandum of Agreement authorizing the pilot composting program on the facility (the JFTB),” said a Monday, March 29, 2010 press release from the military agency.
“Thank God,” said Patty Campbell, a College Park East resident who had opposed the project.
