Normandy Park resident Brett Fish lives next door to the Miller Creek sewer facility and every once in a while an unpleasant smell wafts from the facility where large air scrubbers purify the air.

"It's not a good smell, Fish said. "Not at all fragrant."

But that's the price Fish is willing to pay for an exceptional product--compost. For years the sewer facility has converted bio-solidwaste into compost.

Now, Fish and other green thumbs may not be able to use the popular product.

In an attempt to save money and reduce carbon emissions, the Southwest Suburban Sewer District plans to cease compost production and instead ship all of the bio-solid waste to canola farms in Eastern Washington.

Ron Hall, sewer district general manager, said the reasons for ceasing the compost production are simple-to save money and help the environment.

Out of hundreds of sewer facilities in the state, Hall noted only a handful convert bio-solid waste into compost because of the high cost associated with machinery and production.

Hall said hauling the bio-waste rather than composting will save the district approximately $120,000 to $150,000 each year.

In a recent carbon footprint study, 451,916 pounds of CO2 was released into the environment from composting at the Miller Creek Plant. If bio-solid waste were hauled away the emissions would be cut by about two-thirds or by 114,563 pounds.

Normandy Park Mayor Shawn McEvoy understands the district's concern with carbon emissions but said it doesn't make sense to spend money on diesel to ship bio-solid waste over the mountains.

"The fuel consumed at the plant is one half of the carbon footprint that would be produced to fuel trucks to Eastern Washington," McEvoy declared.

McEvoy said the compost is a greater benefit to the community. The compost increases healthy plant production, reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and protects the soil from erosion.

McEvoy, who uses the compost in his own flowerbeds to keep the weeds down said it is an important product used in local restoration projects in the Miller and Walker creek drainage basins. The compost helps to restore forests and control invasive plants such as ivy and blackberry.

"We can buy locally," McEvoy said. "Essentially we are recycling our own waste."

Currently, 13,000 of the sewer district's residents serving Normandy Park, Burien, and White Center pay 84 cents per month or about $10 a year to pay for the compost production.

Every year the district produces an average of 100,000 cubic yards of compost, Hall said less than 1 percent or 130 residential customers use the district's compost at a cost of $15 a cubic yard.

In order to make composting cost-efficient the district would need to hike up prices.

"If we were to increase the cost of compost to a price that would be equal to hauling, the price would need to increase to $90 per cubic yard," Hall said.

And that's a price customers would be unwilling to pay, according to Hall.

"Do we raise the rates for all customers to subsidize the cost for 1 percent of the population?"

Hall said the sewer district would use the money saved to make repairs and improvements on aging pipe lines.

Space is another force driving a to halt in compost production. The current maintenance facility was built in the 1950's and is too small to house all of the district's trucks and equipment.

Hall said the district is in need of a new building to store trucks and equipment to maintain 260 miles of sewer lines and 10 pump stations.

District officials have two options. They could either purchase new property for approximately $2 million within the district's boundaries or use the building currently used for composting as a maintenance facility.

The board of commissioners is still taking public comments.

Compost production at the Miller Creek Plant has temporarily been shut down until late fall.

Fortunately for composting residents, there is still enough compost to last until January.