'Burning wet feathers' and 'death' smell prompts complaints in Bastrop

BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) -- After a rainstorm and north wind, Terrie Lynn Bach braces for the smell that might hit her when she steps out the front door of her house on the northern edge of Bastrop.

“It smells a lot like, I would think, burning wet feathers … and it smells like death,” Bach told KXAN in early November.

It’s a pungent aroma. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it isn’t, she said. Bach and others have submitted numerous odor complaints over the years to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ.

“We all call it the 'bog of eternal stench,'” she joked, likening the source of the smell to the mythical stinky swamp from Jim Henson’s 1986 musical fantasy, “Labyrinth.”

There’s no bubbling swamp in Bastrop, though. The smells periodically wafting across Bach’s neighborhood, KXAN learned, have originated at Darling Ingredients’ DAR PRO rendering plant. Bach and others who spoke with KXAN live south of the facility, which is located in the Camp Swift area about six miles north of central Bastrop.

A spokesperson for Darling Ingredients told KXAN the company wants to be a good neighbor, employs many local residents and has invested millions in equipment upgrades.

The plant turns poultry by-products, like feathers, and used cooking oil into useful goods like pet food and fuel. According to nearby residents, it’s not the business they want gone – in fact, they appreciate what it's doing. The locals just worry about what’s in the air, and they’re tired of the odor.

“When you burn hair, it smells like that … and bones,” said Javier Sanchez, who spoke with KXAN in his front yard. Sanchez and his wife Olga live about a mile south of the plant. Sometimes, Sanchez said, he wears a mask in his yard because of it.

TCEQ complaints add up

Local grievances about the airborne funk are backed up by TCEQ records. The facility has received over 330 TCEQ complaints since 2002. Agency records show people have lodged over 120 complaints in 2024 alone – the most in a single year, and it isn’t over yet.

TCEQ regulates air emission and wastewater permitting for industrial facilities. The agency has conducted multiple investigations of the Bastrop plant over the years and required the facility to mitigate issues, according to agency records.

Yet, nearby residents say they still catch nasty whiffs.

Investing in the plant and community

Darling Ingredients Director of Global Communications, Jillian Fleming, said the company “apologizes for any inconvenience,” and has been upgrading the facility.

The company “strives to be a good corporate citizen and neighbor in every community where we operate,” Fleming said in a written statement. “We work diligently to abide by all relevant rules and regulations, and work closely with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and all other regulatory agencies to ensure our Bastrop facility is in full compliance.”

The company said it invested $10 million in the past two years to strengthen the Bastrop plant’s reliability and plans to double that expenditure to “enhance wastewater and air management systems next year.”

From poultry by-products, the facility makes ingredients for animal feeds and pet food. The facility also processes used cooking oil for use in renewable fuel production at Diamond Green Diesel – a joint venture with Darling Ingredients, Fleming said.

“Darling Ingredients plays a vital role in supporting the growing poultry industry in the area, helping to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production and providing jobs and economic opportunities in the region,” Fleming said.

'More to the story than just smells'

Neighbors who spoke with KXAN tended to agree with Fleming’s assessment of the plant’s importance. Stench notwithstanding, none of them wanted the facility shut down or jobs to be lost.

“In fairness to them, there is more to the story than just the smells,” said Jane Walton, a CPA living within a couple miles of the plant. She spoke with KXAN by phone about her concerns.

Walton, 74, said the plant’s odors can be “nauseating,” “obnoxious” and “unbearable” at times. Nevertheless, the facility is doing vital work, and it plays an important role in the supply chain, she said.

Walton said she is particularly concerned with hydrogen sulfide – a gas by-product of the rendering process.

Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs.

At high concentrations, hydrogen sulfide can be extremely toxic to humans. TCEQ has not recorded high levels near the Bastrop plant but investigators have detected small amounts of the gas in the air nearby, according to agency records. At low levels, the gas can irritate the eyes and cause headaches and fatigue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TCEQ notices and allegations

Since 2017, the TCEQ has issued at least six notices of violation against the Bastrop facility for 13 violations, according to state data. Several were violations of air emission rules, including a Texas Health and Safety Code rule that bars the release of certain air contaminants that can cause air pollution.

In September 2023, a TCEQ investigator measured traces of hydrogen sulfide in the air and smelled a “very strong odor,” according to an investigation report.

“Odors associated to animal rendering were detected at an intensity and duration that constitutes a nuisance condition,” TCEQ wrote in its investigation summary. The investigator described the smell as ‘Very Offensive,’ in the summary.

TCEQ again investigated complaints in August, found the facility had violated an air nuisance rule and requested corrective action.

“In response, Darling Ingredients acknowledged one of their lagoons is not working as intended,” a TCEQ spokesperson said by email. “The facility has taken steps to improve the water quality in the lagoon and is continuing to implement additional measures to reduce odors.”

Currently, TCEQ has an open investigation to evaluate how the plant is reducing odors and addressing “corrective measures.” The agency said it conducted air monitoring in October for hydrogen sulfide and other compounds, a spokesperson said.

“When we complain about the smell, people think we want to shut it down. No, that is not the case,” Walton said. “We just want them to be good neighbors, and we want them to get the equipment they need to be good neighbors."

Bach echoed that, saying the plant provides jobs for “a lot of folks in the area.”

Big business

The Bastrop plant employs over 90 people, according to Fleming. That’s a fraction of the Darling Ingredients workforce. The company is the largest renderer in North America, with 150 locations and $3.7 billion in net sales last year, according to its website.

Rendering is big business across the country, according to Kent Swisher, president and CEO of the North American Renderers Association, or NARA, a lobbying and advocacy organization for the industry.

Nationwide, the rendering industry “upcycles” over 56 billion pounds of food and meat by-products that would be otherwise trashed, Swisher said in a written statement. The industry also collects used cooking oil from restaurants that could otherwise clog up sewers and cause millions in damage, he added.

“The raw materials upcycled by the rendering industry are processed into pet food/animal feed, aquaculture feed, fuel, and fertilizer creating over 10 billion dollars in economic value and lowering our carbon footprint,” Swisher said.

Steve McCartney, a Bastrop local who lives roughly a mile and a half south of the Darling Ingredients plant, said he understands the business’ importance.

Since the enterprise seems to be doing so well – and "their stock is a good safe bet" – they should stop the smell from escaping, he said.

McCartney acknowledged he doesn’t trade much in securities. He earns his keep by building furniture – primarily for cats – so commenting on Darling Ingredients' finances “might be a little out of my scope, my wheelhouse.”

In the end, he just wants to smell gone.

“They can do whatever they want over there, as long as it doesn't smell like modified death," McCartney said.