HAMPDEN – Despite a spurt of reports this week, the number of people complaining about the smell emanating from Pine Tree Landfill is decreasing overall, according to a landfill official.

In the hours after a Tuesday night television news report, during which the telephone number for the landfill’s odor complaint hot line was aired, four complaints were received, Donald Meagher, manager of planning and development for Casella Waste Systems Inc., which owns Pine Tree Landfill, said Wednesday.

They are the first odor complaints the landfill has received through the hot line this year, he said.

The calls ranged from one person complaining about a smell from five miles away to a caller who just wanted to try out the hot line number, Meagher said.

Another complaint was from a person who reported a bad odor while driving by the landfill on Interstate 95 last week, so the odor source was difficult to pinpoint, he said.

“We need to get a call right as it’s happening,” the landfill official said.

Meagher could not confirm Thursday whether any complaints were received through the hot line that day.

Town Manager Susan Lessard said she received a complaint Monday from a person who detected an odor Sunday night. She forwarded the information to Meagher, Lessard said Thursday.

Though not denying that the reported odors could have originated at the landfill, Meagher noted that a problematic sewer line in nearby Hermon also could have been the culprit.

Since 1999, sewage building up in the line has caused odor problems near Dysart’s Truck Stop and Restaurant, he said.

The smell, caused by some of the same gases emitted at the landfill, exits from a grate in the upper end of the truck stop’s parking lot, Meagher said.

“The average person would say, ‘That just stinks, and I can see the landfill,'” he said.

Overall, the number of complaints received through the hot line has decreased since 2002, the first full year the hot line was in use, he said.

In 2004, 19 complaints were received, compared to 34 in 2003 and 36 in 2002, Meagher said.

The number of complaints tends to rise during the warmer months, with the bulk of the calls coming in between July and September, he said.

The odor complaint hot line is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Meagher said. The caller’s name, address, phone number and complaint are recorded and forwarded to landfill officials, he said.

If the call is received during the day, town officials also are notified, Meagher said.

Landfill officials then review recent deliveries and check the wind direction at the time of the complaint, and sometimes schedule a visit to the site of the reported smell, he said.

The goal is to eliminate all odor beyond the landfill site, but that probably never will happen, Meagher said.

“It is a landfill and odor is an inherent part of the operation,” he said.

The telephone number for Pine Tree Landfill’s odor complaint hot line is 862-5427.