SAN ANTONIO — A large pile of old chips and hot cheetos had a central San Antonio neighborhood smelling like a dumpster. It got so bad, neighbors started calling both San Antonio's Code Enforcement and KENS 5 in an effort to get it cleaned up.
The pile of food was in the parking lot of CA Cattle Company on Monterey street. That company processes food waste into cow feed and other products and regularly gets food shipments in trailers at their location.
Plant Manager Ray Santiago told KENS 5 it's normal for some food waste to end up on the ground and crews typically pick it up. Lately, he said, they've have so much to process that they couldn't keep up.
"Typically everything that is on the ground is picked up every night. It's just that we had a little more than normal from our regular customers so we are trying to make up for that," Santiago said. "We normally scoop it up and bring it inside but lately we've been a little over."
The result was a reeking red and yellow pile of old food that started causing problems in the neighborhood.
"It just smells like somebody threw up or something," neighbor Joe Garza said. "They leave that food out there and leave it all night. Everybody complains but nobody does anything about it."
Garza and other neighbors said the smell was bad enough but the pile was also attracting ducks, stray dogs, cats and other animals to the area. He and other neighbors wanted to know why it was happening.
KENS 5 spoke to neighbors last week and then drove over to the plant to find out what the business was doing about it.
The company plant manager told KENS 5 the business had already been inspected, and cited, by City of San Antonio Code Enforcement and they were trying to speed up production so they can clean it up.
"We are sending two more trucks a day out trying to send this stuff out," Santiago said. "It should take about a week. We are working this weekend and getting a night shift to come in and help us out."
When KENS 5 came back out last Wednesday, the company had gotten the pile of food cleaned up and the neighborhood did smell much better than before.
At the same time, San Antonio Code Enforcement told KENS 5 the company was still in violation because they had only covered up some of the outside waste and had not brought it all inside.
Code Enforcement said this in a Thursday statement:
"Our code officer was on location today and the pile outside of the building has not been removed, but covered with a tarp weighted down with tires. We have issued two citations (municipal court hearings) for exterior maintenance (trash and outside placement). We are working with the owner to have that stored properly and come into compliance."
A Code Enforcement spokeswoman told KENS 5 the company had asked for a few more days to get everything cleaned up correctly.
Still, the pile of food was now out of sight, and residents can reach out to the City of San Antonio, and to KENS 5, if it every comes back.
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