A hearing to determine whether the odor emanating from a West Wyoming kratom plant constitutes a quality-of-life violation is set to resume Tuesday in Luzerne County court.
The plant, KB Crash Creations, and the owner of the property at 223 W. Sixth St., Donald J. Zurenda, are each facing 30 quality-of-life citations alleging the odor created during the facility’s kratom-production process is a nuisance to neighbors.
A hearing before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough began in January but was continued until Tuesday due to the high number of witnesses expected to testify.
The 30 citations filed on each defendant represent complaints from 14 victims, special prosecutor Laura Dennis-Bovani has said.
She has described the odor coming from the plant as similar to an “orange Pine Sol chemical smell.” Wyoming Area Regional Police Chief Michael Turner described the aroma as “toxic” during the first segment of the hearing.
The company, however, argues that the smell is not nearly as bad as some neighbors portray and maintains that it is harmless in any event.
KB Crash is a business that extracts kratom, which comes from the leaves of a tropical tree that grows in Southeast Asia, and sells the resulting powder wholesale to manufacturers of kratom products.
During the extraction process, the company says it uses a solvent known as D-limonene — a natural compound extracted from citrus fruit peels that is in widespread commercial usage.
Wayne Bendistis, the company’s director of operations, has described the smell as an orange odor and maintains it is “not wildly offensive.”
Some in the neighborhood, however, allege they get headaches and feel irritation while breathing as a result of the smell.
Last year, the state Department of Environmental Protection filed two notices of violation against the business alleging it “installed a tea production line and began operation” without a permit and that it also “permitted the emission of malodorous air contaminants into the outdoor atmosphere in such a manner that the malodors were detectable outside of KB Crash Creations property.”
In both cases, the department alleged the violations amounted to “unlawful conduct and a public nuisance” and asked the company to submit a permit application along with written corrective action plans.
Testimony regarding the nuisance violation citations will resume in Vough’s courtroom at 9 a.m. Tuesday.