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Several Clarksdale, Mo., residents said the distribution of chromium-containing sludge onto fields was a common practice in the town. ‘They spread it within a half-mile of my place,’ said Clarksdale resident Roger Veal.

DEKALB COUNTY, Mo. — Chuck Tripp still recalls the odor that permeated Clarksdale on days that a sludge was spread over nearby farm fields.

“It smelled like death,” he said while dining Thursday at the Hill Top Stop in Stewartsville. “I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now.”

Mr. Tripp lived on Clarksdale’s south side for more than 25 years and was familiar with the agricultural use of sludge from a St. Joseph tannery as a protein-rich fertilizer. A lawsuit claims the sludge contained a compound called chromium 6 that causes health problems.

“We caught the brunt of it,” he said of the odor. “There were several people in town who did not like it.”

In the late 1990s, Mr. Tripp wondered what environmental hazards could have resulted from the sludge, which was applied to farms in Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton and DeKalb counties. He’s aware of two fairly large farms west of Stewartsville that received the sludge.

“At that time, no one wanted to listen to you,” he added. “I knew they could not take those chemicals out.”

Mr. Tripp — who now lives in rural Stewartsville — said he knows of no one who has wanted to move from the area or who has suffered unexplained health issues.

Roger Veal of rural Clarksdale spent the day using a backhoe to dig a basement. He estimates that smells from sludge have been common to the area for much of the decade. He knows of a neighbor who had the material spread on his fields.

To Mr. Veal, it’s just a typical smell a person is bound to encounter in a farming community.

“They spread within a half mile of my place,” he said. “For a day or two, you kind of notice it.”

Becky Kelly, another DeKalb County resident, told the News-Press her neighbors have spread the sludge on their property for a decade and that she contracted breast cancer last year.

“I could not open my windows each summer because of the toxic smell — and I don’t have air conditioning,” she said.

A neighbor complained to her about a phone call she made asking Prime Tanning to cease the application.

Medical tests have determined that her cancer is environmental rather than genetic, she added.

Chris Whitley, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office in Kansas City, Kan., said the agency has one letter on file from 1993 that complained of odors related to spreading sludge.

The EPA has no information from testing to suggest that chromium 6 is potentially responsible for brain tumors, although Mr. Whitley said an investigation will continue.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has not responded to several requests from the News-Press for comment.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.