A local property owner began a composting operation. The smell got so bad, the town decided to sue.

Tucked away in the back corner of an industrial park in the town of Pepperell, piles of compost tower above a 20-acre property, diffusing the odor of yard material and fish waste to local residents.

Residents have seemingly emptied out a thesaurus to describe the odor in emails to the town, with “overwhelming,” “nauseating,” “disgusting,” “retched,” and “putrid” just some of the terms used. Emails detailed a fly infestation, health concerns, aversion to daily walks, and a summer that’s been lost to compost.

“I would describe it as the worst smell you get at the seashore, with the low-tide dead fish kind of smell,” Town Administrator Andrew MacLean told Boston.com. “You get a whiff and it’s like ‘Oo.’”

The monthslong inconvenience traces back to a private property at the Lomar Park complex off of Nashua Road, where the owner recently began a composting operation, according to court records. Following several cease-and-desist letters from the town and a lawsuit in Middlesex County Superior Court, the two sides agreed on a preliminary injunction — a court order to pause a specific action while legal proceedings unfold.

The owner, Al Somma, has 60 days from July 30 to stop composting and remove all composting materials, the injunction reads. At the midway point of those 60 days, officials say there’s been signs that the mountains of compost are shrinking.

“They’ve made progress. Given they have four weeks left to go, they have a lot to go,” MacLean said. “The neighborhood is obviously and reasonably upset about this because it is a horrible odor.”

The property owner and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

The property along the Nashua River has historically been used as a sandpit for storing gravel, railroad ties, and other landscaping materials, the complaint says. The town’s zoning bylaws do not allow for a composting facility unless exempted by state law, and the lawsuit alleges the property never received such exemption.

The town first caught wind of the operation in late November 2025, when the town’s fire department responded to reports of a fire on the Lomar Park property. However, when the department arrived, they only found a “large amount of steam” coming off of a compost pile, the complaint says. 

Court records show the town sent a cease-and-desist letter about a week later, on Dec. 2, threatening a $300 fine per day without compliance. But, whether it was the winter freezing up the compost piles or residents keeping their windows closed, MacLean said the smell temporarily went away — until April.

Addressing the problems caused by the compost operation has dominated most of MacLean’s summer. He said he has received dozens of phone calls and emails from residents complaining about the composting smell over the past few months.

“I wish I could say ‘Good Morning,’ but it would be a lie,” one resident named Dave wrote in a June email to the town. “It’s not even summer yet, I can only imagine that if this continues, the issue will become worse.”

Another June email from a resident named Karen reads: “What good is our property if we can no longer use it? Please help bring our neighborhood back.”

A June letter included in the complaint from the town’s Department of Public Works said the property included a pile of fish waste, including “shells, skeletons, whole crabs, gurry and other greasy materials.”

The town sent Somma two more cease-and-desist letters on April 29 and June 4 — one from a town health agent and another from a town zoning enforcement officer, court records show. 

In a letter dated June 9, the property owner’s lawyer responded to the cease-and-desist order by arguing the location has always been used to store “natural materials” and pointed to the “noxious odors” from a sewage treatment plant in the same facility.

What a court decided about Pepperell compost facility

On July 16, the town filed a lawsuit in Middlesex County asking the court to stop the operation. The complaint charged the property owner with violating the town’s zoning bylaws and the town’s air pollution control regulations and with being a nuisance.

Around July 20, MacLean said the town began fining Somma $300 per day until the two sides reached an agreement on the temporary injunction. 

The injunction requires the property owner to stop all composting operations and remove all composting materials within 60 days of July 30. The town, according to the agreement, will suspend all fines during the 60 days, but it may retroactively impose them if the property owner fails to comply.

The town is also allowed to access the property to assess compliance with a 24-hour notice, according to the temporary injunction. Photos taken by the town on July 30, Aug. 18, and Aug 31 show the progress of the compost’s removal.

The first set of aerial photographs provided by the town show piles of compost lining the outer edge of the property. By mid-August, a crane could be seen beside a vacant area where a compost pile previously stood. 

The latest batch of photos, taken Monday, show another pile removed. With several piles still standing, the property owner has until the end of September before the town returns to court.

“We need them to fix it, but at the end of the day, they’re still local people,” MacLean said. “We’re not trying to ruin them.”