By Catie Cheshire | Westword
The stinky Purina factory in northeast Denver next to Interstate 70 is well known around the city. Now a class-action lawsuit has been lodged in the U.S. District Court of Colorado alleging that noxious fumes from the pet food plant are so bad that people who live nearby should be compensated for their loss of property value and quality of life.
The lawsuit is aiming for class certification with Robert Fields and Lorena Ortiz, two Denver residents who live within a mile of the facility at 4555 York Street, as the representatives who filed it on May 28. The complaint names Nestle Purina Petcare as the defendant, claiming that poor maintenance on Purina’s behalf has led to the horrifying smells.
“A properly designed, operated, and maintained pet food manufacturing facility will adequately capture, remove, and dispose excess noxious emissions and will not emit noxious odors into the ambient air as fugitive emissions,” the lawsuit contends. “Defendant negligently and knowingly failed to properly design, operate, repair, and/or maintain the facility and its associated operations, thereby causing the invasion of Plaintiffs’ property by noxious odors on unusually frequent, intermittent and ongoing reoccurring occasions.”