An Arundel company has been charged with allegedly spilling seafood byproduct on a Kennebunk road Thursday, creating a frozen, 3-inch-deep smelly mess that prompted complaints to police from angry drivers who had to drive through the mess.

Kennebunk police on Friday issued a summons to Dubois Livestock & Excavating Inc. of Arundel for operating with an unsecured load. Town officials are considering taking legal action to recoup the cost to clean up the mess.

Police say a Dubois truck was hauling a seafood byproduct shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday when a portion of the load spilled after the truck exited the northbound lanes of the Maine Turnpike and turned onto Alfred Road. Kennebunk Public Services crews spent several hours scraping the fish product off the road and putting down salt and sand.

“Unfortunately it also resulted in some unhappy motorists,” said Deputy Police Chief Michael Nugent. “Kennebunk police and town personnel fielded a number of complaints from angry drivers who drove through the spill leaving their vehicles smelling like rotting fish.”

Rick Dubois, owner of the company, declined to comment when reached by phone Friday afternoon.

The Dubois Livestock & Excavating website touts the business as “Maine’s largest agricultural compost facility” and promotes the fact that its compost includes shellfish.

In 2015, state and local officials said a putrid stench that permeated parts of York County for days came from the Dubois property on Irving Road in Arundel. Officials with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection said in October 2015 that Dubois Livestock & Excavating treated its hayfields with a material that created the odor, prompting numerous complaints. Dubois did not allow state inspectors on the property.

At the time, Dubois was also in violation of a town ordinance for operating its composting business on an expired conditional-use permit, according to town officials. The town decided not to renew the permit in 2011 after Dubois refused to comply with certain required conditions, according to documents filed in Maine Supreme Judicial Court. When Dubois did not cease its composting operations, the town sued and won in York County Superior Court.

The business appealed the decision to the Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that the town did not have proper jurisdiction to bar it from operating, but the court ruled in favor of Arundel. The town and company in 2016 reached a consent agreement to allow the town to inspect the property, which allowed Dubois to obtain an operating license.

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