On still nights in Washington Township, perched above the Ohio River near Moscow, neighbors say the air turns foul enough to drive them back indoors. A rotten-egg stink from the Zimmer coal-ash landfill, they report, is triggering pounding headaches, sudden nausea, and breathing problems that chase people off their porches and out of their yards. Residents say the odor is especially brutal at night and after it rains, and many insist the episodes have become more frequent over the last year.
Families like Rhonda and Brian Brittain told local reporters that the smell has hijacked everyday life. Windows stay shut, porch dinners are off the table, and some people say they hold their breath driving past the site. The I-Team first started tracking these complaints in 2023, when residents said the situation had ramped up and pointed out that the landfill sits in the middle of a roughly 1,453-acre parcel. As reported by WCPO, neighbors say their symptoms range from headaches to a complete loss of smell.
State inspectors visited the landfill this month and told local reporters in an email that they had traced the odor to a pipe carrying leachate from an older portion of the site that holds flue-gas-desulfurization material. The Ohio EPA noted that this material can contain high levels of sulfur that, as it breaks down, can produce hydrogen-sulfide odors that smell like rotten eggs. The agency also said the FGD waste is no longer being placed in the landfill. Residents counter that brief daytime inspections are missing the worst of it, which they say usually hits overnight or after storms roll through. As reported by WCPO, local complaint logs already show multiple odor reports this year.
What officials say
Owner Vistra Corp. says the landfill is equipped with several odor-control systems and that crews regularly monitor conditions and tweak those controls as needed. The company announced plans in 2021 to retire the Zimmer generation units and says commercial electricity production ended in 2022, according to company filings. Ohio EPA records show that in May 2022, the agency issued a permit allowing buried coal waste to be removed from a runoff pond at the Zimmer plant so liner work could be done and that waste could be transferred to the landfill as part of closure activities. According to Vistra, the operator is moving ahead with work tied to closure and post-closure care.
Health risks tied to the odor
Public-health guidance points out that hydrogen sulfide, the same rotten-egg compound neighbors say they smell, can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat and cause headaches, dizziness, and trouble breathing even at relatively low levels. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes that repeated or long-term exposure may lead to persistent neurological or respiratory problems, and that very high concentrations can be life-threatening. That backdrop helps explain why residents talk about daily headaches, nausea, and sleepless nights when the odor rolls in. Federal health guidance on hydrogen sulfide is publicly available, see ATSDR for details.
Regulatory gap and what comes next
Because the site stores coal combustion residuals, federal CCR rules shape how it is overseen and give the U.S. EPA a potential enforcement and monitoring role at legacy coal-ash units. The EPA has recently updated its guidance and proposed federal permit programs aimed at tightening oversight of CCR sites, changes that could eventually alter how facilities like Zimmer are regulated. Advocates and local attorneys argue that continuous hydrogen-sulfide monitoring, rather than occasional daytime inspections, is the kind of evidence regulators need to act. Some residents are already buying their own handheld monitors and keeping logs of the worst-smelling days. For background on federal authority and CCR rules, the U.S. EPA’s coal-ash resources are available at EPA.
For now, township trustees and affected families say they plan to keep the heat on the company and on state agencies, pushing for 24/7 air monitoring and clearer public reporting. Local officials are circulating petitions and have asked the Ohio EPA and regional air-quality officials to schedule follow-up inspections for the hours when the odor is typically at its worst. The landfill owner and state regulators have already supplied written statements to local reporters. Residents say what they really want are continuous air readings and faster remedial action if those readings confirm hazardous exposure levels in the community.
