INDEPENDENCE - A small community in Tangipahoa Parish has been dealing with a fishy smell in the air for years. People say the smell gets stuck in their noses and mouths and trapped in their homes.

It's coming from a shrimp processing plant's wastewater in the Town of Independence.

Sharon Vedros and her neighbors live outside the town limits, in Tangipahoa Parish on Casen Road.

"Like rotten shrimp, that's the only way we can explain it," says Vedros.

Independence is home to about 1,600 people. It has a busy Piggly Wiggly, a handful of restaurants, and a City Hall. It's also where Big Easy Foods and Gulf Island Shrimp & Seafood have a plant. The seafood processing facility generates waste and contributes to the stench neighbors complain about. The waste is sent to an oxidation pond and mixed with the rest of the town's wastewater.

That wastewater treatment facility is also on Casen Road, where Vedros lives. The smell doesn't permeate the air every day, but when it does it's nearly unavoidable.

"I can't even sit on my front porch, the smell is that horrific," she said.

If the wind blows in their direction, they get a whiff of the fishy smell. Their complaints date back years and include a lawsuit and countless visits from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

"I can't tell you how many complaints we've put in - I've put in to DEQ," said Vedros.

Across the street, Victor Coslan has his home up for sale. Coslan says the only reason he put it on the market a year ago is because of the smell. He thinks that's also the reason why it hasn't sold.

"People pull up and they're like, 'Oh, what's that smell?' and they get back in their car and they leave," he said.

Donald Badon lives next to Vedros and is asking for change.

"That plant wasn't designed for the amount of wastewater they're pumping through it from that facility," said Badon.

The smelly problem is not new; it's been passed down from mayor to mayor. Mayor Jim Paine says there's a special meeting Thursday night that will address the seafood smell and try to bring the company into compliance. The board will decide on a timeline at that meeting and the community is invited to attend to provide comment. It's at 6 o'clock on Thursday, April 3 at Independence City Hall.

Gulf Island Shrimp & Seafood declined to comment.