WIXOM, Mich. (WXYZ) — Wixom residents in the Hillsborough subdivision say there's an occasional stench coming from a nearby composting facility.
Kathy Gawronski told 7 News Detroit, "I think it was a couple years ago... we noticed kind of walking around this sub that it kind of smells like a dump. Where is that coming from?"
7 News Detroit reporter Darren Cunningham has the story in the video below:
Neighbors traced the smell to a composting facility located at the Wixom Department of Public Works on Charms Road.
"We don't want an operation shut down. We just want to have the smell to go away," Gawronski said.
Danny Pridmore told 7 News Detroit, "If the wind's blowing from the north, we smell it like crazy."
"It's just really bad. It's like, uh, almost wanna say a dead animal or something. It's so bad," he described.
Spurt Industries performs the composting. The company contracts with the city of Wixom to haul in waste, including yard waste and food scraps, to recycle.
Gawronski said, "In our opinion, I don't think our city has enough oversight of what's going into that property."
"We've put calls into the operation, so they can log our complaints. We've been told to do that. We've been told to log service requests with the city. So, we've done tons of that. Which some have been followed up, some haven't. We've come to council meetings," she explained.
At a Wixom City Council meeting in November 2024, Bill Whitley, the owner of Spurt Industries addressed the problem.
He said the food waste coming from Ann Arbor is not to blame as residents believe.
Whitley told city council members, "The creation of the odors came from this increase in yard waste volume."
He explained, "Our outgoing volumes continue to rise year on year. That gives us the space to manage the materials in a more responsible way moving forward."
Gawronski told 7 News Detroit, "To their credit, they've gone into detail about what it takes to manage an operation like this. How they have to control the input and the recipe, but the problem is we don't have that kind of control that we need to prevent the stench."
She said, "It really is a quality of life thing. You wanna be able to come outside. We're outdoors people . You wanna be able to walk around and not have to worry about what is that smell?"
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7 News Detroit spoke with city manager Steven Brown who acknowledged past odor complaints but said he hadn't heard of any concerns recently.
7 News Detroit also reached out to Spurt Industries. In a statement, company owner Bill Whitley said:
At Spurt, we are long time members of the Wixom community and care deeply about it. We’re a family-owned business, this is where our children go to school, and we work hard to be good citizens and good neighbors. Spurt has been composting in Michigan since 1994, and in Wixom since 2008. Over that time, we have invested in staff training, equipment and follow industry best practice methods to responsibly manage materials. We believe our responsibility extends far beyond our property lines, and we’re committed to operational excellence and local economic growth.
We investigate and respond directly to each communication that we receive from the community whether that be positive or negative and encourage feedback via the contact form on our website. We have worked hard to make continuous improvement to our processes and will continue to do so to ensure that we are good neighbors.
We work hard on community engagement at Spurt. We host regular tours for customers & residents to educate the community on the work that we do, our team, training, methods and environmental benefits that come from the landfill diversion of these materials and the application of compost back to Michigan soils.
We support local schools and organizations such as Sarah Banks Middle School, Wixom Elementary, Wixom Firefighters Foundation, and the Wixom Historical Society. In addition, we host over 200 students from our local middle school every year to celebrate Earth Day by teaching them about the benefits of compost, climate action and circular economy.
At Spurt, staying connected to our community is an important part of our mission. To support Wixom residents, we offer free services which are utilized by more than 500 residents annually, including:
Free organic debris disposal:
Yard waste, brush, tree debris and food scraps
Free pick-up services:
STA Certified Compost and mulch
