This idea really smells, but Fargo, North Dakota thinks it's a moneymaker.

In an effort to control the stink from a landfill, officials in North Dakota's largest city decided to turn methane gas into electricity and sewage into usable water for a nearby ethanol plant. Going green should add more than $2 million a year to city coffers.

One city commissioner quips, "If it smells, it sells."

Fargo uses the methane to generate electricity for its own facilities and a nearby crushing plant. The effort also allows the city to sell so-called carbon credits. And the gas wells cut the smell.

The city also takes some of the recycled water it pours into the Red River and sells it to a new ethanol plant about 20 miles away.

It all started about eight years ago when city officials were flooded with complaints about the smell from the landfill.