It's not often a town of roughly 1,000 makes national news. But then, it's not often a town faces a plight so ripe for media attention as Parrish, Ala.
For upwards of two months, a train brimming with sewage sludge has been squatting uninvited near fields used for youth baseball, simmering in the afternoon sun, making its noisome presence known even in the darkness of night. In a word, Mayor Heather Hall told The Associated Press earlier this week, "it smells like death."
Parrish Mayor Heather Hall said she is doing everything in her power to get the feculent freight out of her town.
"It's so frustrating," Hall said. Last week, Hall met with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, and she and other Montgomery lawmakers told Hall they would help get it sorted out. "They're trying to work behind the scenes to get us a little bit of help, but we've been told that for weeks, and there's still no solution."
Hall said the stench permeates everything. The rail yard is across from a baseball field and next to a softball field. Parrish only measures about 2 square miles, and pretty much everything is within smelling distance.
But it appears the tiny town may finally be waking from its long nightmare.
"I have wonderful news," Hall announced Wednesday on Facebook, in what one might describe as a remarkable understatement.
She explained that the containers of excrement aboard that train have been transported to and emptied at their intended destination, the landfill operated by Big Sky Environmental about 25 miles away. A few containers remained at the Parrish rail yard as of Wednesday afternoon, but she reassured her constituents those were just empties, soon to be removed, as well.
They want it gone. The load has been there for almost two months, and it's making the whole place smell like a rotting animal carcass.
To add insult to injury, it isn't even their poop. For the last year, waste management facilities in New York and one in New Jersey have been shipping tons of biowaste -- literally, tons -- to Big Sky Environmental, a private landfill in Adamsville, Alabama. But in January, the neighboring town of West Jefferson filed an injunction against Big Sky to keep the sludge from being stored in a nearby rail yard.
"It greatly reduces the quality of life," Hall said. "You can't sit out on your porch. Kids can't go outside and play, and God help us if it gets hot and this material is still out here." On Tuesday, when Hall spoke to CNN, the temperature in Parrish reached 81 degrees.
"You can't open your door because that stuff gets in your house. It's really rough," Parrish resident Robert Hall told CNN affiliate WVTM. Other residents said the waste smelled like dead bodies.
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