Located between Bastrop County Animal Services and Camp Swift, the facility collects and recycles food industry waste to produce animal feed ingredients, biofuels and other byproducts.
In the midst of a community rally cry of “Stop the Stink,” Darling Ingredients withdrew an application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to modify its air permit Oct. 21, which TCEQ said would have allowed for increased emissions.
“We [withdrew the] request after our engineering team identified a way to improve the process that fits within the current permit,” said Jillian Fleming, director of global communications for Darling Ingredients.
But, Bastrop County citizens say that may not be enough.
“We deserve much better than what this company has delivered in the past,” Bastrop County resident Karl Aschenbeck said. “They have had years to fix this problem and constantly tell the citizens to deal with it.”
What we know
During an Oct. 8 regular meeting at the TCEQ office in Austin, residents from all over Bastrop County voiced their concerns about alleged “foul odors” emitted by Darling Ingredients.
Steven Cutbirth—a member of the Elgin Economic Development Corp. and Elgin Chamber of Commerce boards—was among the many Bastrop County residents who urged TCEQ officials to take action with Darling Ingredients.
“It’s actively creating a negative incentive for our local economy,” he said during the meeting. “It’s affecting our local businesses, and it’s inhibiting our ability to thrive economically, which is a problem.”
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer rights advocacy group that was founded in 1971 in Washington, D.C., has worked to make Bastrop County residents’ voices heard.
“Too often, community concerns take a back seat to a company’s interests during the permitting process,” Kathryn Guerra, the director of Public Citizen’s TCEQ Watchdog campaign, said in an Oct. 21 news release. “The people of Bastrop County had to take extraordinary steps to be heard. It’s a story that is repeated in communities large and small across Texas, where community voices are routinely ignored.”
Darling Ingredients has since responded by launching a website, www.darlingii.com/bastrop and a dedicated phone number, 512-772-4527, where residents can report their concerns.
“Community concerns are important to us, especially when they relate to quality of life,” Darling Ingredients, which employs about 100 people in Bastrop County, said in a statement.
Elgin City Council member Joy Casnovsky said she believes Darling Ingredients has not been in compliance with its current permit in years.
“It stinks in my community, and Darling needs to do more than tinker with permits to stop the smell,” said Casnovsky, who organized residents to hold a town hall in Elgin in October to express their concerns.
Others, including State Rep. Stan Gerdes, also reported they can smell the Bastrop facility from their homes at times.
“We’re looking into involving the [attorney general’s] office, and preparing legislation to stop the stink,” Gerdes, a Smithville resident, said in a Sept. 29 statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following their complaints and those from other Bastrop County residents, Darling Ingredients officials—who told Community Impact that the company works with TCEQ and other regulators to ensure full compliance—met with Gerdes, Bastrop Mayor Ishmael Harris and other local officials on Oct. 2.
For Harris, the meeting was an “important step” toward resetting the community’s relationship with Darling Ingredients and holding the company accountable.
Fleming said officials will share updates about facility improvement projects—both ongoing and completed—aimed at curbing the odors emitted from the plant.
