Reeseville residents alarmed by foul odor from liquid dumping

REESEVILLE, Wis. - Something stinks in Dodge County, and neighbors in Reeseville said the odor is reaching concerning levels.

"I think it smells like a lot of human waste," said Kristen Westlake.

A smell can be subjective, but it's reaching new levels of bad for some people who live in the village of Reeseville.  

"It’s horrible," said Westlake.

Locals say the smell is coming from liquid dumping, and it's happening at United Liquid Waste Recycling near the end of Bobolink Road.  

"It’s got sewage, and God knows what's in it," said Kevin Roberts. "It’s terrible."

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FOX6 News reached out to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and they said the company applied for a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Meaning they are allowed to dump liquid industrial wastewater, industrial sludge and byproduct solids.

Those who live there say the smell can be overwhelming.

"It’s awful, isn’t it? You’ve been here 25 minutes; you’ve seen 100-something thousand gallons for this piece of dirt," said Roberts. "They’ve been doing this at this pace every day for four days."

On Friday, residents told us their concerns are now beyond the smell.

"I worry about the well water. Most of us out here get our water from the well," said Westlake.

Wisconsin DNR said they received a complaint on the issue last September and last week. Both times they found no evidence of a violation. As far as they can tell, there's no evidence of discharge into the waterway.

"It just stinks," Roberts said. "I don’t know what else you can say about it."

Still, the lingering stench has left a rotten impression. FOX6 reached out to United Liquid Waste Recycling, and they said they have no comment on this story.

In the meantime, Wisconsin DNR said they have requested additional monitoring data for the site.