An anaerobic digester gets slapped with county permit violations, but operators say it’s all hot air.

The occasional foul smell wafting into Marina has been a lingering topic among the city’s residents over the past few years, and the anaerobic digester at the nearby Monterey Regional Waste Management District continues to face scrutiny as a potential source of that odor.

On Feb. 13, the Monterey County Health Department issued a notice of violation to both the district and to Zero Waste Energy, LLC – the company that operates the digester – for lack of compliance with the county’s permit requirements.

“[The digester] is operating without a valid permit and, based on previous routine inspections, does not meet minimum standards for its current operation,” county health specialist Maria Ferdin writes in the notice.

Among the areas of concern or violations the county has logged since April 2016 include odor control, nuisance and compost contamination.

Yet Zero Waste CEO Eric Herbert says he’s been filing paperwork with the county for six years, and disputes that the digester is currently unpermitted. He says the county already has all the information it’s asking Zero Waste to submit due to the violation, and Zero Waste just has to put it in a different format.

“It’s a very heavily regulated industry and there’s a lot of different forms and approaches, and it can be quite confusing,” Herbert says.

MRWMD’s contract with Zero Waste to operate the digester runs through May – it began as a pilot project in 2013 – and in the coming weeks, the district board may elect to renew it, or let the operation retire.