Residents of North Dalton and Bainton have expressed their anger after a lagoon for waste from a £10m green energy power plant was constructed between the two villages.
It is feared that the pit, which is located at Westfield farm and measures over half an acre in size, will cause a stench.
Both parish councils insist planning permission is needed for the lagoon.
Mo Greenwood, parish clerk for North Dalton Council, revealed concerns about building a lagoon over a chalk aquifer, close to the River Hull headwaters.
"If this is an experiment our environment is far too precious to be experimented on," she said when speaking to the Yorkshire Post.
"We want to see an application to give us an opportunity to express our point of view and to probe further into the implications."
The pit will be used to store a by-product of the anaerobic digestion process used at the GWE Biogas plant in Kirkburn, which converts food waste into a methane-rich biogas.
This sterile "digestate" is used as an alternative to chemical fertiliser, and joint managing director Tom Megginson admitted there had been "isolated" odour problems when spreading it on land.
Copyright Press Association 2012