Oregon city of Sweet Home grapples with sewage stench

SWEET HOME, Ore. — There’s little sweet air in Sweet Home these days. In fact, it stinks.

The problem lies with the sewage equipment, and it’s been that way for a year.

In the fall of 2006, the Willamette Valley town replaced equipment inside a holding tank at the wastewater treatment plant with what was called “an energy-efficient diffused air system.”

The tank is where solids are pressed before going to a landfill.

Public works director Michael Adams said the old equipment was a mechanical aerator at the top of the holding tank that stirred the waste. The new equipment, he said, uses a more energy-efficient motor, but stirs from the bottom.

But the arrival of the warmth of spring in 2007 brought malodor and malcontent.

“Nobody expected odors to be an issue,” said Adams. “They can get pretty strong.”

Adams said the city spent the next year working with the state Department of Environmental Quality to minimize the smell.

Earlier this month, he said, crews installed a filter to pump air through the holding tank. By the first week of April, they will place a cap over it to keep smells from getting out.

“We hope to get it back to what it was before we changed out the piece of equipment,” Adams said.

The new equipment cost $200,000, he said. That dashes hopes of reducing operational costs, but it won’t affect rates, he said.