Paper mill smell?? (Savannah, Midway: home, school, camp)

[I-Ruehl]

I have heared about this, just wondering WHAT it smells like? Poo? Chemicals? Feet?

[mikeg453]

It smells like wet, moldy cardboard boxes.

[Rotten Tooth Ralph]

Originally Posted by I-Ruehl

I have heared about this, just wondering WHAT it smells like? Poo? Chemicals? Feet?

At times it smells like all 3. lol

[ellie]

It's sulphury. It's certainly not pleasant and has been in the air a little too much over the past few days.

[WanderingImport]

I've been told the smell isn't damaging to one's health. I'm still a bit skeptical. Aren't there laws prohibiting such smells?

[Padgett2]

Originally Posted by WanderingImport

I've been told the smell isn't damaging to one's health. I'm still a bit skeptical. Aren't there laws prohibiting such smells?

There are laws. BUT, Mother Nature sometimes sets up weather conditions that intensify the conditions that make it worse.

It's ever so much better than it used to be in the "good old days." There weren't clothes dryers then and the clothes that dried on the clothesline, stunk to high heaven. The smell went for MILES! Children that lived on the westside were shunned in school because they smelled so bad. (I'm talking about the 1930s and 40s.)

Laws have been enacted to cut down on emissions. But where ever you have manufacturing, there are likely to be some.

Just wait. The odor will disappear and we might not have another spell like this one for years.

[ellie]

Maybe someone with time on their hands can start making phone calls. I've noticed that it's not easy to find a stink hotline.

Here's a link to the Savannah plant's contact info. Get in touch with International Paper in Savannah, GA.

Perhaps people with questions and complaints will call and find out what the company says.

And I searched for a contact number for the Georgia EPD's air quality division and this is the best I could come up with. Maybe some brave soul will try it and see what happens.

https://www.cleanaircampaign.org/About-Us/Contact-Us
Georgia Environmental Protection Division - Home Page

The city's environmental affairs office number: Environmental Affairs Office
(912) 651-6943

There is also a county environmental health office that is supposed to handle air quality complaints. Phone: 912-356-2160
Fax: 912-356-2969
Chatham County Health Department Coastal Health District

[Padgett2]

It makes you wonder, doesn't it! Is this really all about the weather, or is someone just messing around with something in the plant?

I believe that they had to install some sort of 'scrubber' in the chimneys to eliminate most of the smoke products. Are they still working as they should? I remember that the cost of putting them in was out of this world. But they sure improved things.

I really do feel for those that are on the western side. It can be dreadful. If it's being noticed even in the historic district, it's a bit unusual. That's one reason for living on the Islands.

[DanielAvery]

That smell has alwayd been around, but like others have said, we don't get it as much as we used to. I grew up in Effingham, where the sea breeze would often push it up-river. Many Effingham residents back then (1980's-early 1990's) worked for Union Camp (now Int'l Paper), so when people would ask "What's that smell?" some would reply "that's the smell of money".

The sulphur-y/rotten egg smell used to be more...pungent? than today, since IP has scaled back production somewhat and because there's a lot more technology applied to lessen the smell. Still, on an overcast day that smell would stay at ground level rather than going up into the atmosphere.

The same particulants generating that smell are also repsonsible for the bleached-out patches on the hoods and roofs of cars in the area. The particles descending from the smokestacks react with the paint/metal. You could almost always tell if someone worked for Union Camp (IP) by the condition of their paint job!

[Newsboy]

Well if you think it's bad, you should drive down I-95 to Midway / South Newport area and take a big whiff of the plant down there -- visible from the interstate but otherwise out in the middle of nowhere, and thus not held to the same odor control standards of IP and others in more populated areas. It will make your stomach turn on a good day. There's another plant in the netherland of SW Georgia that's the same wretched sickening smell. Having lived in Savannah in the early '90s, and then returnng, I can assure you it is NOTHING close to what it once was. The past few days have been an anomally brought on by colder weather. ALSO: What many people assme is the smell of the paper mills is often in fact decaying matter in the marshes, especially this time of year. The odor is similar.