SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) — An unbearable smell has overtaken a University City neighborhood.
"It just smells like something rotting, it can be sort of an ammonia smell at one point it was making my eyes water," said Melanie Fiorella who can smell the landfill odor.
The odor is so bad some mornings and evenings that residents run to their cars, keeping their doors and windows closed and kids inside.
Although they know living near Miramar Landfill has its smelly consequences, residents haven't endured the overwhelming stink until the last couple months.
The landfill, aware of the complaints, has used a odor control pilot program; it is a plant-based non-toxic vapor to help stop the stink.
They say back-to-back rain events could be to blame as oxygen is lost and trash turns worse at the place where almost 910,000 tons of trash are disposed yearly at the landfill's 1,500 acres.
"It's a really nauseating, unkempt smell," said Marco Gastelo who also smells the odor.
Residents are urged to call the San Diego Air Pollution Control District as a solution.
"The more individuals who call at every event, the more power the air quality control people will have to do something about it," said Fiorella.