A Kentucky appeals court has handed Scott County residents a significant win in their long-running dispute over odors they say came from a closed landfill.
Their lawsuit can now continue as a class action, so the neighbors can pursue the claims as a group instead of one at a time, according to the Kentucky Lantern.
Here's what to know
Under an Aug. 7 ruling, the case against Waste Services of the Bluegrass will remain certified for class treatment. Court of Appeals Judge Will Moynahan said Scott County Circuit Judge Kathryn Gabhart was correct in allowing the named plaintiffs to represent a larger group of residents who say they were affected by its alleged odors.
The dispute dates back to 2019, when Scott County residents sued after years of complaints involving its Central Kentucky Landfill in northern Scott County, as Kentucky Lantern reported.
According to Gabhart's July 2025 ruling, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet received complaints about odors people called "noxious" nearly every day the roughly 33-acre landfill was operating. People described the smell as "sulfuric or chemical in nature" and said it affected them both indoors and outdoors.
That ruling also said the odors were associated with physical symptoms such as irritated eyes and nausea.
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More background
The landfill stopped taking waste in 2022 under an agreed order with the cabinet. Before that shutdown, it inspected the site at least 104 times between 2017 and 2022, according to Kentucky Lantern.
Moynahan wrote that inspectors identified "reported odor exceeding regulatory thresholds" during 42 of those visits.
The company argued that the residents' allegations were too individualized to be handled as a class action. It also said the plaintiffs waited too long to ask for class certification because that request was not made until 2024, years after the lawsuit began.
What's being done?
Despite that pushback, the residents are moving ahead together.
Inspectors kept documenting the same complaints for years, according to the court's account.
Moynahan wrote that the case has "progressed slowly." Even so, the appeals court's ruling keeps the matter moving forward as a collective case instead of a series of separate individual complaints.
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