NEWBURYPORT — Several Newburyport city councilors joined neighbors of the Crow Lane landfill Wednesday night at a meeting in Everett and learned when it comes to landfills, the cities have even more in common than they realized

Wood Waste in Everett is owned by New Ventures and William Thibeault, the owner of the stench-plagued Newburyport landfill. Newburyport has stopped Thibeault from shipping any more waste to the city, due to violations Newburyport says Thibeault has committed at the landfill.

Officials in Everett believe the current situation at Wood Waste could be alleviated if materials from that facility could be brought to Newburyport to cap the Crow Lane landfill.

Newburyport city leaders attended the meeting looking to learn more about Everett's situation.

Bill Woodbury, a neighbor of the landfill who attended the meeting, said people in Everett were "gracious" to Newburyporters, and added, "They had no idea what we're going through."

The two cities learned they have "an awful lot in common," Woodbury said, including the same problems with hydrogen sulfide and its odors. The two communities aren't adversaries, he said, but are there to help each other out.

"We're all on the same page together," Woodbury said.

Thibeault's Everett recycling facility is causing headaches for some in that community, where a "rotten eggs" odor often emanates and piles of debris are the size of small mountains, city officials say.

Attorneys for Thibeault were present at the meeting, as were Everett elected officials.

"Everett learned about Newburyport as we learned about them as well," At-Large Councilor Tom Jones said.

The same questions were raised again and again, Jones said. What does Thibeault plan to do with the mounds of debris at the Wood Waste facility? The group was told if Newburyport allowed the material to be used at the landfill, it would stop the situation, Jones said.

"They (Everett) rightfully complained about the terrible smell," Jones said.

Attorneys for New Ventures and Wood Waste "continued to claim that they'd done nothing wrong," Jones said, and at one point referred to Thibeault as "the victim" — a statement that drew laughter, Jones said.

Landfill abutters, as well as Jones, spoke about the situation plaguing Newburyport.

Told that Wood Waste will build a permanent transfer station in two years in Everett, Jones said he shared how New Ventures told Newburyport in 2002 that he was going to close the landfill within 24 months, a process that included guidelines and protocols. The discovery of hydrogen sulfide caused the parties to create a new closure plan. The city agreed to a 36-month closure plan.

Under that plan, the landfill should have been capped by the end of 2005, Jones said. "That was what they were bound to do by the protocol they brought forward," he said. "The project sits now, half-done, six years later (from the initial meeting in 2002)."

Newburyport has faced an ongoing battle with New Ventures for years as both the city and the state have sought to move New Ventures forward. The city and state have fined New Ventures numerous times, issued two preliminary injunctions against the company and have taken them to court multiple times.