Lowell Sun, Fri. Aug. 31
 
TEWKSBURY -- A combination of garbage, manure and ashtrays.
 
That's how South Street resident Karen Silvestri describes the odor that regularly permeates her neighborhood.
 
Silvestri's son likens it to the smell of dirty diapers.
 
Fellow South Street resident David Powers thinks it's more like the stench you might find at the bottom of an old barrel.
 
"It's really foul and putrid," Powers said. "It's just not fair."
 
South Street homeowners have lived with the scents from a piggery and composting operation at nearby Krochmal Farm for decades. But many of them say the odor has reached a particularly rancid level this summer.
 
Powers has now given those people a place to congregate, at least on the Internet. He is the man behind tewksburyodor.org, an online repository of information on the odors, their potential health effects and the control mechanisms that the farm could use.
 
"I wouldn't want the farm to close," he said. "I would feel awful about that. I did move into this neighborhood after all.
 

I'm just trying to peacefully find a way for the town or the farm to eliminate or abate the odors."
The owners of the Krochmal Farm did not return a call seeking comment.
 
But Powers and the neighbors who have rallied to his side face a hefty roadblock in their quest to combat the farm smells. State law states that odors produced by "normal" farming and agricultural procedures cannot be considered a nuisance.
 
The only exception would apply to odors that are "the result of negligent conduct or actions inconsistent with generally accepted agricultural practices."
 
But Tewksbury Health Director Lou-Ann Clement noted that Krochmal Farm has been recognized for its "good management practices" by the state Department of Agricultural Resources, which regularly inspects the facility.
 
The farm's owners, Clement noted, have nevertheless worked to address the steady flow of complaints with such initiatives as buying new equipment to control the agricultural smells.
 
"The thing about odors ... is that natural elements will increase or decrease odors," Clement said. "It's beyond (the farmers') control, to some extent. But we are trying hard to work with the owners so that everybody can cohabitate."
 
But residents remain skeptical.
 
"It's not personal," Powers said. "But I find it hard to believe that the smell can be this bad if they do as they are supposed to. This is supposed to be a small farm. It shouldn't stink out over one-third of Tewksbury.
 
"It smells often and unpredictably," he added. "That is what is so horrendous. If we forget to close our windows and the wind shifts, it only takes a minute to immerse the house. And what do we do then? Light a thousand candles with two small children in the house?"
 
Powers' wife, Kathleen, and other joggers in the neighborhood said it also would be nice to be able to take deep breaths without getting nauseous.
 
"You really cannot inhale," Sunset Circle resident Phaedra D'Ambrosio said. "It makes your eyes water. We tolerate a lot of things because we don't want to live in the city -- mosquitoes, bad smells once a year when they fertilize. But there's no reason why we have to be subjected to this day in, day out.
 
"Enough is enough," she added after a pause. "Somebody has to be held accountable. This is about good-neighbor practices."