A dismissed nuisance lawsuit over noxious odors, filed by Bethlehem homeowners against the Bethlehem Landfill, has been revived by a federal appeals court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in a precedential decision reversed a lower court’s holding that too many residents were similarly affected to sustain a private claim for public nuisance, that the odors were too widespread and the landfill was too far away from them to constitute a private nuisance, and that the plaintiffs’ negligence claim fell short because they couldn’t show the landfill had a duty of care.