Ellsworth is taking a composting company to court after getting repeated complaints over a consistent bad stench emanating from its property on Industrial Road.
The city has filed a complaint against Maine Organics in Ellsworth District Court.
The city alleges the company violated Ellsworth’s recently adopted odor ordinance on multiple occasions during the summer of 2025.
It’s the latest in a years-long saga between Maine Organics, the company’s neighbors and the city’s code enforcement department, who have fielded and issued odor-related complaints and violations against the composting facility.
The city said earlier this month it was considering legal action against Maine Organics after having received 64 community complaints, ending in three citations, over the summer.
When the smell continued to linger after those three violations — which neighbors say has consistently happened since the facility opened in 2018 — the city’s code enforcement officer, Robert Grant, referred the matter to the city’s legal counsel, he said.
“The facility produces a persistent smell that reaches a nuisance level odor at every abutting property,” a March 10 court complaint says.
Joshua Wellman, the owner of Maine Organics, was given 30 days to abate each complaint.
“Defendants failed to respond to every notice of violation,” the complaint says.
The city is requesting that the court order the company to mitigate all “offensive odors” within 30 days.
If Maine Organics doesn’t comply, Ellsworth wants court permission to “designate agents to enter said property and abate the site in compliance with the Court’s order,” and to “recover any actual direct expenses incurred by the municipality in the abatement of the nuisance,” the complaint says.
The city is also asking the court to order Wellman to pay $100 per violation per day since Sept. 10, 2025, the date of the last notice, and to absorb the city’s attorney’s fees. With three violations issued by the city and still pending since that date, those fines add up to $54,300.
Wellman did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News.
The complaint will be heard before an Ellsworth District Court judge on April 8.
Some of Maine Organics’ composting process, which uses — among other ingredients — locally sourced shellfish waste and woodshavings, produces the foul smell, which one neighbor has described as similar to “an unkempt rat cage crossed with sewage.”
The City Council adopted an odor ordinance in March 2025, after a consent agreement signed in 2024 between the company and the city failed to resolve the issue.
The recent citations have been violations of that ordinance, which limits commercial and industrial entities from releasing “noxious or offensive odors” that may pose health risks or “unreasonably interfere” with a property’s use or enjoyment for an extended period of time, the ordinance says.
“The filing cites persistent odor issues, multiple public complaints, and three Notices of Violation issued in 2025 that were not appealed or resolved,” City Communications Director Amy Kenney said. “The City is seeking court-ordered mitigation, along with penalties and cost recovery as appropriate.”
