Petaluma residents raise stink over coffee roasting odor

A loud if small chorus of residents has started to complain about the roasting coffee coming from a North McDowell Boulevard facility.|

In a farming community like Petaluma, one would think the last smell most people would complain about is roasting coffee. But in the last 18 months, a loud if small chorus of Petaluma residents has started to raise a stink about the roasting coffee coming from the Mountanos Family Coffee and Tea facility on Commerce Street, off North McDowell Boulevard.

Spurred on by former City Councilwoman Janice Cader-Thompson, the city of Petaluma has asked the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) to investigate whether the roastery is violating air quality regulations.

“The Air District is currently conducting an investigation of the facility. We should have some results in a few weeks,” said Ralph Borrmann a spokesman for the air quality district.

Mountanos moved into the facility at 1331 Commerce Street in 2011. The BAAQMD has been investigating since May of 2015, when Cader-Thompson first notified the city and Mountanos that the smell from the roastery was “overwhelming.” Cader-Thompson lives in the residential neighborhood across North McDowell Boulevard from the facility.

“The burnt coffee odor is horrible. This is polluting the air and my property value will decrease with this odor,” said Cader-Thompson in a Sept. 15 email to Mountanos executive Wayne Nielsen. “The odor will have to be disclosed if we or my neighbors try and sell these homes.”

She said the odor was pungent at times, and not at all pleasant.

“There was an acid smell sometimes, and most of the time it smelled like burned toast. Once I thought there was a wild fire in the area, but it turned out to be the coffee roasting,” Cader-Thompson said.

She was not alone. Employees of businesses in the area complained of the “burned toast” smell, while Petaluma resident Shelley Klaner, who lives in the Turtle Creek neighborhood of the city, said two weeks ago she contacted the BAAQMD concerning the smell.

“I thought I had an electrical fire in my house,” said Klaner.

Executives acknowledged the smell and worked with Cader-Thompson during the summer of 2015. On Aug. 6, 2015, Cader-Thompson met with Nielsen and Mountanos then general manager Dustin Webber. In emails to Cader-Thompson during that summer, Nielsen said the company was “in the process of refitting the afterburner of our roasters in the hope that this could further improve the efficacy of our roasting system.

“I am very sorry that our initial roasting modifications (resizing the afterburner-burner) have not solved the issue. Currently, we have scheduled a manufacturer software recalibration in the hope that improving the synchronization between roaster and afterburner will help resolve this issue. Also, as we previously discussed, a redesign of the roasting stacks is being engineered as an additional attempt to fix the issue,” Nielsen said in an email to Cader-Thompson last year.

Cader-Thompson now feels the company was “appeasing” her during the summer of 2015.

Mountanos said it is operating within the allowed parameters of its city-issued permits.

“With respect to technical aspects of our roasting facility, we secured all appropriate permits from the city of Petaluma and adhere to them,” said Eric Bianchi, director of operations for Mountanos. “We use state of the art air quality equipment to ensure our operation comports with the regulations of the BAAQMD.”

On their web page, the company states that “after testing every available roasting device, we decided on the Jabez Burns Jubilee Roaster, which, after a few proprietary modifications, delivered the result we demanded.”

As for complaints from the community, the company said “to our knowledge, one individual has inquired about the smell associated with roasting coffee. We met with this individual, toured the facility and explained our operation. Cooking almost any food produces some aroma, and coffee is no different.”

Cader-Thompson is critical of the city’s response to her complaints as well, saying the city “was remiss in not understanding the impact” of allowing a roastery to locate in the area. She noted there were no public hearings when the company was asking to move into the current location and the elected officials of the city had no role in approving the business for their current location.

For their part, city planning officials say Mountanos’ roastery was fully in compliance within the city’s codes and zoning ordinances when they were approved. Heather Hines of the city’s planning department said since Mountanos did not need any special or conditional use permits to move into the facility, it was not necessary for public hearings to take place.

She said the city was aware of complaints about odors and referred Mountanos to the city’s code compliance division, which in turn referred the case to the BAAQMD.

Both Petaluma Mayor David Glass and City Councilwoman Teresa Barrett, who represents the city on the BAAQMD, said they have heard the complaints, though both admit they have not experienced any problems with a bad coffee odor.

“Not everything can be foreseen and this may serve as a lesson for the future,” Barrett said. “This seems to be a good company trying to work with the city to solve this problem, but zoning regulations do not anticipate all uses.”

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.