Living in the country can stink.

• Position: Charlotte

Jeff Bennett swears he's not trying to drive Wallace Farm Inc. out of business. But he thinks something needs to be done about it. His neighborhood near Huntersville in northern Mecklenburg County often reeks of rotting food and manure from the company's composting operation, and some neighbors have a hard time discussing it rationally. "There are some people who would be extremely angry and vocal and screaming at you and telling you it's not fair."

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Maybe they shouldn't be surprised by the scent from Wallace Farm's 160 acres. For most of the past 60 years, it was a dairy farm, rife with the aromas of dung, silage and compost. About 1990, it began leasing out the dairy operation and focused on composting. The last cow departed in 1999.

The Highland Creek subdivision started south of Wallace Farm in the early '90s. Eric Wallace's grandfather sold the developers land so they could run sewer lines. Until five years ago, Wallace, now company vice president, couldn't see the houses from the farm. Now, they border it on three sides. Trees that filtered the stench were cut down to make way for more homes, he says. Some went up within sight of compost rows.

Wallace Farm has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to mitigate the smell, he says. "This is a trend that's happening throughout the country. I could tell you story after story about how irresponsible residential development has encroached upon farms, landfills, wastewater-treatment plants. People buy their homes, they move in and they complain. It blows my mind."

But Bennett, president of Highland Creek Community Association Inc., says the odor has gotten much worse since he moved in 12 years ago. Aerial photographs show compost mounds have grown in the past year and a half, he says. The company processes about 100,000 tons of waste a year--about what it did in the '90s, Wallace says, but inventory has grown because it's giving its product more time to mature.

Bennett's neighbors have discussed lawsuits. Wallace Farm is trying to renew its state composting permit, and Bennett says he would rather avoid legal action by working out tougher rules with regulators, including limits on the size of the operation and what raw materials it can use. "We'd just like to see a solution so everyone can peacefully coexist without the odor issue."

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