The view of the building from East First Street causes no alarm -- just another business nestled between the railroad tracks and a modest residential neighborhood. The lawn is neatly mowed. A fountain in a pond near the entrance shoots streams of water into the air. A blue and white sign identifies the current owners of the meat processing plant inside as Five Star Custom Foods.

But people who have lived near this nondescript plant say it isn't what you see that causes the problem. It's what you smell. It's what the plant has flushed through the sewers and released into the air over the years.

Under a variety of owners for the last quarter century, this facility has periodically generated obnoxious fumes that can stop work, induce nausea, and send people running inside their homes.

City and state action occasionally has forced owners to make changes that improved conditions. But the problems always returned. In the long run, records reviewed by Fort Worth Weekly show that government regulation has not only failed to permanently fix the problem but has failed the people along East First Street who are forced to live with it. NEXT »

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