Gibbston Community Association chairman Craig Palmer said the smell from the Victoria Flats landfill had been markedly worse over the past few weeks, particularly on still mornings.
"Most mornings when you step outside, you can definitely smell the dump,'' he said.
"It's something that's discussed fairly frequently in Gibbston, and it's a real shame that in such a beautiful place, we have to put up with that in the mornings.''
A recurring issue for many years, the smell was more noticeable in the winter, Mr Palmer said.
"It's not a pleasant smell. I've heard people say that at times it's so bad they just can't go outside - it's that overpowering.''
He would remind residents in the association's newsletter this week to ring the Otago Regional Council's pollution hotline whenever they noticed it.
"Unless we tell them, it's unlikely that anything's likely to be done about it. It's not something we should be having to put up with.''
Mr Palmer understood the landfill's contractor, Scope Resources, was looking at using a new system to try to better manage the problem.
The company has a long-term contract to manage the landfill, which opened in 1999, on behalf of the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts.
The landfill is between the Victoria Bridge and the Nevis Bluff, about 19km from Queenstown.
Household, commercial, special and hazardous waste from the Wakatipu and Central Otago is buried there.
Regional council acting regulatory general manager Peter Winder said it had received six complaints about odour in the area recently.
Staff carried out "odour surveys'' in the area on two days last week, but found "no objectionable odours''.
"We will continue to monitor the area, and are commencing an audit of the landfill.''
Although the landfill was an obvious potential source of the smell, the council needed to confirm that - and rule out other possible causes - before it could take action, Mr Winder said.
The regional council's air plan requires the release of "offensive and objectionable'' odour be avoided and mitigated by management practices, planning and appropriate control technologies.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council did not respond to questions by deadline.
