The people of St. Simons Island in Georgia are currently trying to deal with a slight issue: there’s a bad smell permeating the area, and no one can quite figure out where it’s coming from. The immediate problem seems to come from a manhole at a road intersection which is leaking out gasses that have been building up in the sewage pipes.
Andrew Burroughs, the deputy director of the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission, held a meeting on Thursday to address the stinky problem. According to him, the smell could be caused by a number of things, but he did identify the top three most likely culprits: "a high concentration of sulfides in the wastewater system, sewage being held up in the pipes for an extended period of time or because some of the sewage conveyed under that intersection has to travel a long way to get there."
In order to sus out just where the rank smell is coming from, utility workers will reportedly begin testing sewage from different parts of the town’s system in an attempt to find the source of the smell. When—or if—they find it, Burroughs assures that the smell can be treated with chemicals to eliminate the sulfide production as well as to mask the odor. Chemicals can also be used to kill the bacteria in the system, but that won’t necessarily be the town’s first option, since killing bacteria is only a temporary solution. There is also helpful bacteria in the system.
In the short term, though, Burroughs has made some moves to try to make the town start smelling at least a tiny bit better. According to The Brunswick News, a deodorizer block similar to a large urinal cake has been placed in the manhole on Thursday.
