Neighbors complain about odor from green-technology Asian carp processing plant

Illinois River north of Peoria

On the surface there's not much newsworthy about this story about bad smells coming from a southern Illinois fish processing plant. Dead fish are stinky. But the fetid operation utilizes green technology.

From the Alton Telegraph:

Despite American Heartland Fish Products' numerous assurances from its leaders about an odor-free, "100 percent green facility," neighbors are disturbed by smells produced by the company's fish plant.

Months ago Grafton resident and fish plant neighbor Tom Warford asked American Heartland’s local investors, who also live in Grafton, to remedy the situation, but a solution has yet to be discovered. Investors Ben Allen, Bryon Lebaeu and Gray Magee, who is the chief executive officer of American Heartland Fish Products, said that a state-of-the-art Asian carp rendering facility would be absent of malodorous odors but rotten and charred-like smells have existed, off and on, from plant operations that began once equipment testing completed in May.

"There is an issue with an odor. No one is denying it," Grafton Mayor Tom Thompson said Monday to the Telegraph.

A press release from the office of Lieutenant Governor Shiela Simon, a downstate Democrat, touts the green technology of the plant.

Grafton is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Asian carp, an escapee from southern fish farms, now comprise by weight two-thirds of the fishes in the latter body of water.

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