‘It’s awful’: Neighborhood stinks from trash juice and heat
By Kaitlin Corbett
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MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WMUR) — The garbage is gone, but a stench is left behind. Neighbors in Manchester are complaining of the remnants that “trash juice” is leaving on their streets, a problem they said is only exacerbated by the heat.
‘Trash juice’ is the odorous liquid that comes from garbage bins or, in this case, from the compacting of trash in the garbage trucks.
Bonnie Jones brought the issue to attention in a post on Facebook. She’s been living in the neighborhood on Wayne and Dubuque Streets for the last three years. On Tuesday, she said the brown, foul-smelling liquid was flowing through the alleyway behind the buildings where she lives, and into the streets.
“It is awful,” Jones said. “It’s enough to make you vomit.”
Another neighbor, Justin Warren, said his bedroom window faces the back alley where the juice lingers. He doesn’t open the window in part because of the stench.
“Leaving my house in the morning, it’s usually 79, 80 degrees. And being like, in direct sunlight, it’s getting hit constantly, and it’s just not helping,” Warren said.
Jones said it’s not just impacting her, but everyone who lives in the area.
“You can’t walk through the alleyway afterwards, and we all parked out on the street,” Jones said. “You know anybody that has a dog, you can’t walk through that, you can’t. You’ve got to take your shoes off (when you go inside). We get black flies and the smell; when it’s hot, it just lingers.”
Another neighbor, Amy Maltais, said the rain is the only thing that can wash it away — that’s because the homes there don’t have hose hookups.
“We don’t have the ability to take care of this for ourselves,” Maltais said. “If we could, we would. We don’t want to live in this, and it’s not fair that we would have to be living in it,” she said.
Though frustrated, the neighbors agreed they hope to work together with the Department of Public Works to find a solution.
“It’s maybe not just a one-sided solution; maybe it’s a solution that requires us all to participate in,” Maltais said.
Jones said she reached out to DPW and hasn’t heard back.
News 9 received the following statement from DPW:
“We did receive a complaint yesterday and are taking action this morning. We will be sending equipment to wash down the area.
“Discharge from our refuse trucks is not frequent but does happen on occasion and we respond accordingly.
“It is important to point out that City Ordinance 91.65 (C) specifically prohibits fluids being placed in containers for municipal collection.”
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