MENTOR, Ohio — In a Mentor neighborhood, residents say a horrific odor has been wreaking havoc for years. Now, they're fed up—and they want something done.
Homeowners in the Woodhill subdivision describe the recurring stench as unbearable, saying it often smells like feces and fills the air several times a week. According to residents, the odor is strongest early in the morning and late in the day—especially near Richards and Lenor drives—and can linger anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.
“It's disgusting. Some days it's worse than others. It's so bad, some days it's like it'll knock you over, take your breath away,” said Shane Bergoch, Mentor resident.
Bergoch moved into his home in October and it didn’t take long for him to catch a whiff.
“You're like, oh, it's not just in my house, at my house, it's throughout the neighborhood,” said Bergoch.
Dennis Ryan has lived in the neighborhood for 23 years—and says he has been dealing with the foul smell for the past four years.
“It’s not that you get used to it. It's like, you call and you complain about it and you get dismissed. You're like, what else can I do,” said Ryan.
Ryan says when he first noticed the smell, he reached out to the sewer company, but felt ignored.
“They came out two minutes they checked in. They said, oh no, it's flowing underneath the street. It's fine,’ said Ryan.
After moving in and experiencing the problem, Bergoch began calling everyone he could think of—the city, the county, the sewer district, even the Environmental Protection Agency. Some officials told him they weren’t aware of the issue.
“Yeah, I started the petition only because when I started to call the county, they told me it's not an issue. I'm the only person that's ever called. So, I knew, after having these conversations with all my neighbors, I was like, well, that's not true,” said Bergoch.
So far, he’s collected 22 signatures. Residents believe the problem lies in the old sewer infrastructure underneath their homes.
“They've built a number of new subdivisions around us that have tied to the main line. So I think it's just overloaded. It's not getting pumped through, it's just gravity fed so that sewage sits in these line,” said Bergoch
News 5 reached out to the city, and they responded with the following.
“Something was reported to us in that area about 5 or 6 years ago but nothing recently that I am aware of.,”
They added that they will investigate the issue further.
“I had my family over on Easter we're sitting on my back porch, we had to go inside. It was so bad. So like, you know, how are you supposed to have enjoy your property, your home, with your friends, with your family?,” said Bergoch.
As his frustration grows, Bergoch is considering moving if things don’t change, and others on the street say they just want the smell gone.
“We don't really ask for much around here. We never had anything like this before, just, you know, get to the bottom of it, admit you were wrong, fix the problem, find out what's going on,” said Ryan.
While residents are aware of the marsh located behind the area and a nearby water treatment plant, they don’t believe those are the main sources of the odor.
The city told News 5 that problems like this are typically investigated by the Lake County General Health District. We have reached out to the county and are currently awaiting a response.
