Last week Everett had that nostalgic aroma I remember from my youth. After years of the paper industry fighting the clean-up with assurances that hydrogen sulfide did not present a health problem, science prevailed and Everett became a sweet sea breeze city.

According to the Herald article Saturday, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency said one of its inspectors, “…determined the origin of the smell Thursday.” Would it not have been good for Kimberly-Clark to inform the agency and shorten the tax-funded detective work?

Further, the Herald piece says, “Toxicologists with the state Department of Ecology, which regulates chemical pulp mills, were not immediately dispatched to Everett, but instead relied on the company’s monitoring to determine whether the emissions were in compliance with state rules.” The company assures us they were in compliance.

If this level of release was in self-monitored compliance, as Kimberly-Clark assures us, does this mean they can go back to this stench 24-7, year round as in the past?

Is this the fox guarding the hen house? No rotten eggs to report from these hens, sir.

Terry Hanna

Everett

* something smells