LANGLEY — There’s a big stink at the county fairgrounds in Langley.

But this time, it’s not about Fairgrounds Road.

The manure pile that usually sits up against the bluff at the edge of the fairgrounds has been growing in recent months and it’s not just animal waste and wood shavings.

Yard waste, concrete debris, treated wood and other waste has also been dumped on the pile — some of it on land now owned by the city of Langley for its Fairgrounds Road project.

The issue has been raging for the past week on the Langley Community Forum, a popular chat site for locals. And because of the city’s wellhead just northwest of the fairgrounds, concerns over the manure pile wafted into city hall Wednesday.

“The city has been aware of the problem for some time,” city administrator Walt Blackford said.

Langley asked the county to file a mitigation plan to resolve the manure pile issue with the city prior to this year’s fair. Blackford said Langley is still waiting for the county’s reply.

Even though the manure has been stored at that location on the fairgrounds for years, critics are now calling for city officials to protect the city’s water supply from the manure.

“I am concerned that the pile’s concentrated proximity to the city’s well may have an adverse effect on our water supply in the future,” resident Mike Klim wrote in an e-mail addressed to Langley officials.

“I know our regular water tests indicate no problem as of yet. However, I wonder how much longer will it take before we start noticing a little something extra in our drinking water?”

Island County may use a portion of the small triangle of land at the south end of the fairgrounds for a new manure holding facility. The to pour a cement base for safer storage.

City Planner Larry Cort sent a letter to the county’s public works department on Feb. 19 alerting them that the pile violates state-mandated “best management practices.” He also wrote that leachates could contaminate the aquifers or migrate as stormwater runoff from the fairgrounds into the public drainage system and Puget Sound.

As the owners of the fairgrounds property, the county is responsible for following best management practices.

Cort wrote that typically large amounts of composting materials must be lined to prevent leakage into the ground and a curb must prevent water washing the manure away.

Fair board chairman Dan Ollis said he is not aware of any formal complaints about the manure pile.

“As far as I know, we never got a complaint on our practices,” he said.

Fair organizers have the manure hauled off the premises regularly, but there is some aged manure still on site, he said.

The fair also has been fighting a problem with illegal dumping on the site.

As for yard waste and other debris, Ollis said, it comes from a number of improvement projects that volunteers have finished in recent months. Fair officials are waiting to collect enough material to fill a 20-yard dumpster to remove it.

“We want a better place to hold the manure and wood shavings,” Ollis added.

The fair receives $15,000 a year for capital improvements to the fairgrounds, this year they got $30,000, but Ollis said it is not a priority to construct a manure holding area because the fair has to upkeep aging buildings and fix rotting stalls and dripping roofs.

Janet Hall, WSU Extension Waste Warriors program director, said she has talked to fair administrator Sandey Brandon about the manure situation.

“I talked to them about what to do from now on,” she said. “Not just dumping a pile of manure.”

“It’s a resource in my mind. It should be used,” Hall said.

Hall added that Brandon told her that the manure would be hauled off this year and used to create topsoil.

The manure is not an immediate threat to Langley’s water supply, but a potential one. The water system is tested annually as directed by the State Department of Health, Blackford said.

Since 1997, the wells in question have been tested for nitrates 19 times.

Test results have ranged from 3.3 parts per million in 1997, to 1.2 ppm in 2006 and 1.6 ppm in 2007.

Washington’s drinking water quality standard for nitrate is 10 ppm.

Langley resident Hal Seligson said the city doesn’t have its state-required wellhead protection plan in place. That means it’s lacking an important tool for protecting Langley’s water.

“The mess of animal waste on the county fairgrounds in Langley is inappropriate, and it should be removed to a environmentally less sensitive area as soon as possible,” Seligson said. “However, the real threat to South Whidbey’s water supply is not a pile of biodegradable fertilizer. We are threatened by a lack of education about the genuine vulnerabilities of our aquifers, and by a lack of leadership to provide reasonable and enforceable mandatory safeguards according to Washington state law,” he said.

Seligson added that he believes that in Langley there is a ongoing absence of a plan by which the city safeguards its wells from man-made pollution.

“This issue is not isolated to Langley. It deserves serious attention throughout Island County wherever people depend on local wells for their water,” he said.

Langley’s public works director Rick Hill said the city has a consultant working on the wellhead protection plan, and expects to have a draft complete by the end of July.

“I would expect adoption of the plan sometime in October or November,” Hill said.