Schuylkill County officials have sent enforcement notices to a company that operates a processed human waste facility near Tremont that emits noxious odors.

The action surfaced after a former county controller demanded commissioners do something about Natural Soil Products, owned by Tully Environmental, New York.

Melinda Diebert, North Manheim Township, twice took to the podium at a commissioners meeting recently.

She is concerned that runoff from NSP is leaching into water used for irrigation by a major potato processing plant, which is downhill from the facility. The runoff, she said, may contain heavy metals and harmful chemicals.

“These are taken up in whatever food crop there is, and potatoes being grown in the ground are going to take up a higher percentage of these toxic substances,” Diebert said.

She asked why the county hasn’t sent its zoning enforcement officers to inspect the facility.

Commissioners Chairman Larry L. Padora responded, saying the county just sent the notices. The company has 30 days to respond.

Diebert asked why it took the county so long to do that.

Padora said the county only learned that NSP was violating the terms of its original permit when they researched the company’s history while drafting a letter of opposition to NSP’s request for a permit extension.

Commissioners recently submitted the written opposition to the state Department of Environmental Protection in response to NSP’s request to extend its operating permit.

Included in the letter was that the original zoning permit, issued in 1992, was for “leaf and yard waste composting only.” No documents verifying a change to human biosolids composting can be found.

The letter also mentions 87 DEP violations between 2007 and 2025; pest control; odor control; and buildings constructed without zoning approval.

Residents of Tremont, Good Springs and other communities near the facility have complained for years about the stench emanating from NSP.

The odor is so foul they cannot open their windows or sit on their porches.