a court hearing last month<\/a>, Wyoming Area Regional Police Chief Michael Turner described the aroma as \u201ctoxic\u201d and as hitting \u201clike somebody punched you in your gut.\u201d<\/p>\nLindo Sabatini, owner of Sabatini\u2019s Pizza at 1925 Wyoming Ave. in Exeter, said the smell has been an ongoing problem for at least a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk outside and you get hit in the face with an orange citrus cleaner smell,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cDuring the summer when our patio\u2019s open, we\u2019ve had numerous people ask to be switched to inside because they don\u2019t want to smell it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabatini described the aroma as delivering a chemical burning-type of a sensation even at his restaurant, which is about a half-mile away from the plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some points it gets so offensive where you can actually feel it in your chest when you walk outside,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cIt takes your breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he has contacted management at the kratom plant to express his concerns, but that the smell has persisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m for business. I don\u2019t want to see a local business harmed, but they\u2019ve got to do the right thing so that it\u2019s not affecting the quality of life of all its neighbors,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cIt affects us here, six blocks away. People that live on that block \u2014 I can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impacting the quality of life<\/p>\n
Last year, police and code enforcement officials filed numerous summary quality-of-life nuisance violation citations against KB Crash Creations as well as against the property owner and landlord, Donald J. Zurenda.<\/p>\n
When the case goes before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough on March 3, the defendants will have to answer to 30 citations each based on complaints leveled by 14 victims, special prosecutor Laura Dennis-Bovani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople couldn\u2019t walk outside, couldn\u2019t leave their house, couldn\u2019t play with their kids for more than 10 minutes without them describing a feeling of it really affecting their breathing, their eyes itching, total discomfort,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople have a right to be in their own yard, walk up the sidewalk, play with their kids and not feel like they are breathing in a scent that\u2019s covering their sinuses, their throats, their lungs, their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis-Bovani noted that residents from Wyoming, West Wyoming and Exeter have all complained about the smell, and that the complaints have continued to come in even this month.<\/p>\n
Many are concerned about what chemicals are being released into the air and their effects on their families, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what\u2019s in the air, and we have never been told what\u2019s being emitted in the air. We don\u2019t know what chemicals are being released in the air in addition to the D-limonene,\u201d Dennis-Bovani said. \u201cAll I can go by is what the residents are complaining of, and it\u2019s not just a scent. It\u2019s something that causes them a physical reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018No kratom in the air\u2019<\/p>\n
Bendistis\u00a0disputed any suggestion that toxic substances \u2014 or even kratom itself \u2014 are wafting through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no kratom in the air,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s insane for a company to manufacture something and then just spray it into the air, first of all.\u201d<\/p>\n
While many kratom producers use extraction solvents such as ethanol alcohol, Bendistis said KB Crash\u2019s use of D-limonene represents a conscious decision to avoid using \u201ctoxic\u201d chemicals during production.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a company that took a stance to invest a lot of money and go through a lot of hardship and expenditure to find a clean, green way to produce something,\u201d Bendistis said. \u201cWe went the different route and used oranges. We took oil from oranges \u2014 like the orange juice you buy \u2014 and they tried to make that a criminal problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has visited the site \u201cdozens and dozens\u201d of times and has never cited the company for any air quality violations.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Paoloni said she contacted the DEP about the smell last summer and the agency sent someone to check it out. However, Paoloni said she was informed that the smell was from a food-grade scented oil and that there was no danger to public health.<\/p>\n
Dennis-Bovani acknowledged the DEP has gone out to test the air quality at the facility dozens of times, but she said the department\u2019s response is usually several days after the fact and not during the timeframe when most of the complaints come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have people who called with complaints at 8 o\u2019clock at night,\u201d Dennis-Bovani said. \u201cThey show up to investigate, usually, at noon the following day.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, department spokeswoman Patti Monahan said the DEP has issued two notices of violation to KB Crash \u2014 one for a malodor violation and another for operating without a permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir permit application is under review,\u201d Monahan said Friday.<\/p>\n
In an April 3 violation notice provided by the department, an air quality specialist informed KB Crash president and chief executive John Blair that the company \u201cinstalled a tea production line and began operation\u201d without a plan approval or an operating permit.<\/p>\n
The second notice, issued on June 13, says an inspector investigating a complaint about the smell determined the company \u201cpermitted 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In both cases, the department alleged the violations amounted to \u201cunlawful conduct and a public nuisance.\u201d The company was asked to submit a permit application and written corrective action plans.<\/p>\n
Steps taken<\/p>\n
KB Crash attorney David P. Heim, of the Philadelphia law firm Bochetto & Lentz, said in a statement that the company has taken steps to mitigate the scent.<\/p>\n
\u201cKB Crash believes the orange-like aroma \u2014 which comes from the use of a citrus based oil (D-limonene) \u2014 was not a nuisance to begin with, but KB Crash wants to be a good neighbor and member of the community,\u201d Heim said. \u201cSince these complaints were made the company \u00a0has taken every reasonable effort to eliminate the aroma in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bendistis said those steps have included reducing production as well as installing over $250,000 in \u201camelioration hardware,\u201d including commercial air-scrubbers.<\/p>\n
Bendistis suggested that the complaints are coming from a vocal minority and are merely a pretext to go after a business that is manufacturing kratom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is that people are only emphasizing and selectively showing to the public the small bits of negativity, but have nothing to say about how much taxes that we bring to the neighborhood, how many people that we employ,\u201d Bendistis said, adding that the company now has about 35 workers. \u201cEverybody here took this job, getting involved with it because they like the idea that there is safe, green chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis-Bovani disputed the suggestion that the business is being targeted because it makes kratom. She said the residents\u2019 quality of life is her concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not that anyone\u2019s attacking kratom, or the good or bad effects of kratom,\u201d Dennis-Bovani said. \u201cThey are the subject of citations because they are affecting people\u2019s quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she acknowledged the charges filed against KB Crash \u2014 which previously paid $14,000 in fines issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety violations including blocked emergency exits, improperly marked doors and electrical hazards \u2014 are low-level summary violations punishable by small fines under West Wyoming\u2019s quality-of-life ordinance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anything\u2019s going to happen with this smell, unfortunately,\u201d Dennis-Bovani said. \u201cThey keep saying they\u2019re doing something. Maybe they are, but whatever they\u2019re doing isn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smell emanating from a nondescript building on a West Wyoming street first attracted the attention of Peggy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,1027,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,802,4489,804],"class_list":{"0":"post-113306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-exeter","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-top-stories-cvc","18":"tag-west-wyoming","19":"tag-wyoming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}