Intermountain Packing faces public nuisance charge over odor

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)— Idaho Falls city prosecutors have charged a local meat processing plant with a misdemeanor for causing a bad smell in the city.  

According to court documents, Intermountain Packing LLC and its CEO, David Adams, are being charged with public nuisance.

The complaint states the company allowed “a pungent odor that is offensive to the senses and which interfered with a considerable number of persons and/or an entire community or neighborhood’s comfortable enjoyment of life.”

Intermountain Packing is located at 1096 East Iona Road in Idaho Falls.  

According to court documents, if found guilty, Adams could face 6 months in jail and/or a $1000 fine.

The charges were issued after several complaints from city residents, mainly from those in the Shelley, Ada Avenue, and Mound Avenue area.

An Idaho Falls police officer was assigned to investigate the smell on December 9, 2024.   

His report said the city installed a machine called the Titus Twister in a wet well near Intermountain Packing to help aerate the smell. Intermountain Packing bought the machine for the city to install. 

 The Sewer Department’s manager said they clean off the hose of the machine weekly.  They said, “that the toxic gas from the blood is very corrosive to the machine, and if the machine breaks, the smell becomes much worse.”

The report says the sewer department also installed filters in manholes to reduce sewer line odors. Employees working on the sewer line near Shelley Street and Ada Avenue were required to wear gas masks. Some even become sick from being exposed to the gases within the manholes while handling the filters.

When the officer spoke to David Adams about the smell, Adams explained that the plant’s sewer line is only 1 of 4 pipes that join together in that area. Adams believes Intermountain Packing was only partially responsible for the smell in that area. He said he believes the problem is the lack of infrastructure to support all of the wastewater and sewer required in the area of Shelley Street and Ada Avenue and Mound Avenue.

Adams said to the officer, “Only the smell comes from wastewater and doesn’t come from the exhaust of the building.”  He said, “After the animals are slaughtered, solids and fats of the animals are removed from the wastewater through screens at the facility.  All the animal byproducts, such as bones and other animal parts, are hauled away by semi-trucks.  The only particles that go into the wastewater and sewer facilities are blood and heated water.”

Adams states that the water is heated between 190 to 200 degrees before entering the sewer system. 

Adam said he consulted with local engineers who told him “the blood and wastewater from the plant are safe to enter the sewer lines and actually helps break down other components of sewage and waste.”

The officer said he wasn’t going to cite him for public nuisance at that time because Adams “met every expectation asked of him from the City of Idaho Falls, including purchasing equipment for the city to help alleviate smell from the sewer and wastewater lines that may not be entirely his responsibility to maintain.”

Adams is scheduled to be in court on Friday, February 7 at 1 p.m.

Local News 8 spoke to Adams in December 2024 about the unpleasant odor. You can read that story here.