Kettering’s free compost ‘not chemically treated to reduce weeds’

Schwieterman’s comments were in response to a resident’s complaints of “weed seeds” being distributed in the city through the long-running program.

“Yes, you can have weeds in the compost or generated by the compost if you use it in your yards,” Schwieterman told city council last week.

The program is more than 20 years old and provides about 2,000 tons of compost and mulch annually, according to the city.

Kettering resident Larry Maloney said he discovered a problem with the compost a few years after picking it up at the city’s site in Indian Riffle Park behind Tannenberg Kennels on East Stroop Road.

“And my beautiful lawn turned into weeds,” he told council earlier this month.

Maloney said later he dug about eight inches in his yard, “filled it with Kettering’s compost, put new sod over it. Again, it was beautiful. The next spring it started growing weeds back again.”

Maloney, who described himself as an organic gardener, said before using the city’s compost he would pick the dandelions that grew in his yard.

After using Kettering’s free material, he said, his lawn became “full of dandelions. But it was a different variety” than before.

“As it is now, it’s a grade below compost,” Maloney said. “And the citizens of Kettering deserve to know that.”

He questioned whether Kettering’s compost was being heated properly to 130 degrees, using either manure or a chemical. If not, Maloney suggested, “what your city’s making is rotted vegetation.”

Schwieterman said the city’s compost consists of leaves of other yard debris. It is heated to the “recommended temperatures — if not above those recommended temperatures” in piles on city land at Miami Valley Research Park and then taken to the Stroop Road site, he said.

No changes to the city’s process are planned, Kettering Community Information Manager Mary Azbill said in an email.

There is a “delicate balance in the production,” Azbill said. “The compost pile reaches 180 degrees and we turn it and allow more moisture to form as the temperature drops. We continue turning the piles to maintain an appropriate temperature and consistency.”