JBS USA Hit with Class Action Over ‘Noxious Odors’ Coming from Louisville Pork Processing Plant

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A proposed class action lawsuit aims to take JBS USA to task for the apparent noxious odors produced by its Louisville, Kentucky pork processing facility. 

According to the 20-page complaint, the odors from the 300,000-square foot JBS plant have bled into neighboring private properties and stem from industrial processes that involve “substantial pollutants, raw materials, and animal byproducts,” including carcasses and other waste. 

The filing states that “[n]umerous area residents” have reached out to the plaintiff’s counsel with accounts of the impact JBS’s alleged odorous emissions have had “on their lives and ability to use and enjoy their homes and properties.” According to accounts included in the complaint, nearby residents have described the odors as smelling like “death,” “warm blood and dirt” and “worse than my cat box.” Some residents, the suit says, forgo walks with their dogs, or avoid inviting others to their homes due to the “embarrassing” smell. 

The lawsuit says that JBS is required to maintain and implement adequate odor mitigation and emission control processes to minimize the environmental impact of its operations and prevent noxious smells from invading the ambient air outside of the facility. Despite this, however, JBS has failed to install, operate and maintain adequate odor mitigation and control strategies and processes to keep odors from its operation from invading nearby homes, the suit alleges. 

According to the filing, JBS’s Louisville facility processes 10,000 hogs per day, often through the night and into the morning, for use in bacon, ham, deli meats and other pork products. The suit stresses that the defendant’s operations require the handling and storage of substantial numbers of animal carcasses and “other highly odiferous materials.” 

JBS’s operations, the case contends, create a foreseeable risk that noxious odors may be emitted into the surrounding communities if reasonable mitigation measures are not taken. The lawsuit states that in addition to a bevy of citizen complaints, JBS has received a number of notices from the Louisville Metro Area Pollution Control district for apparent violations related to the prohibition of “objectionable odors.” 

“Despite clear knowledge of its odor emission problem, Defendant repeatedly continued to frequently emit severe fugitive off-side noxious odors into the ambient air outside its property,” the case alleges. “The foul odors emitted from the Facility are offensive, would be offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary health and sensibilities and have caused physical property damages.”

The lawsuit aims to represent all owners, occupants and renters of residential property residing within one mile of the Louisville, Kentucky JBS USA facility’s property boundary. 

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