January 25, 2006
The Stink Of King County Bungling Blankets Seattle, Regularly
Today's daily newspapers and several online TV news outlets report on the hideous odor that blanketed Seattle yesterday. The mistaken implication is that it was caused by a one-time, freakish malfunction at a King County (Metro) sewer substation in Seattle's University District.
The Seattle Times reports:
Many Seattleites woke up to a dank, putrid smell Tuesday morning when an odor-control unit at a sewer substation malfunctioned. The unit that controls the odor of sewage at the Lake City regulator station failed, causing a strong unpleasant smell to seep through the city's manholes and into the air. The station, on Northeast 40th Street between the University Bridge and the University of Washington, carries sewage from North Seattle near Matthews Beach through pipes that eventually end up at the county's wastewater-treatment plant in Magnolia.
Well, ain't that the damnedest thing. Now I know. Except this isn't a one-time deal, not in the least. I've been getting this exact same smell in the south part of West Seattle on a semi-regular basis. It happens only on super-foggy days like yesterday morning, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I've noticed it, as have all my neighbors and family, about four times in the previous year. It just about knocks you flat on your back.
As in the ongoing elections debacle, the County is loathe to acknowledge the reach of the problem. This KOMO-TV story includes a report from a citizen that the piquant sewage smell reached the Alaska Junction (Alaska St. SW and California Ave. SW) in West Seattle. (Actually, it went at least four miles further south, to my neighborhood). But King County Wastewater Division chief Don Theiler responded to the citizen report this way:
"I don't think it would've been that widespread...There may have been some hydrogen sulfide escaping from some of the manholes. It's a very pungent odor. But West Seattle, no, it couldn't have gone that far."
Not so fast, KOMO notes.
There might be something to it, according the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. An inversion and light wind could conceivably carry the essence of sewage across town.
Conceivably is hardly the word. Actually, thanks to its handling of elections, King County's stench has international reach. The local stench from the Lake City Regulator, however, has been an issue before, although none of today's news reports so indicate. Here is King County's 2004 Regional Wastewater Services Plan. Scroll to the air quality complaints tables on page 38 of the document, and you will see four complaints for the Lake City Regulator. Not necessarily severe issues if you read the fine print, but nonetheless, there's clear acknowledgement four years after trumpeting new odor-control equipment at the facility to replace that lost in a fire, they're still not able to use it properly. Given yesterday's city-wide stench, the breakdown in operational procedures, and similar (suspiciously unreported) occurences in the last year, serious consideration should be given to replacement of onsite management at the Lake City Regulator. But accountability isn't the King County way, is it?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 25, 2006
10:43 AM | Email This
1. Hey, maybe out there somewhere, walking through the fog, is our neighbor from the North, (Victoria to be specific) Mr Floatie!
2. I'm "glad" I smelled this on the way to work yesterday. Reminded me of what we'll get in the near future with the wonder little "Brightwater" project.
3. Sniff, sniff. Funny, Olympia was supposed to be South of this smell.
4. Oh, come now. King County government has much more important things to administer than basic services that are the purpose of government. Anyway, people in King County use the sewage system far too much. It's our own fault.
I propose that we limit sitting on the can to twice per week per citizen. That should solve the problem.
5. That foul smell is nothing new. It started about 20 years ago when Seattle became overrun by KLOWNS and proceeded on a path to becoming:
THE ANAL CANAL OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!
It appears they have finally succeeded!
6. Gets worse everytime Cyniclown speaks.
7. LeftKLOWN--
The truth is painful for those of you emersed in the LEFTIST Mumbly-puke. Perhaps LeftKLOWN, you might consider removing your head from whatever dark, dank place it currently dwells and take a look outside the Iron Curtain that surrounds the People's Socialist Republic of Seattle??!
It's quite beautiful out here in the rural areas. You can breath...even fart, without having to explain your conduct to some demented PINHEAD like you!
8. We always called it the "Tacoma Aroma" down here in Pierce County, but Matt's right, the stench of Seattle's statists reaches far and wide.
Sniff, sniff, I think I smell Dean Logan cooking up another election right now.
9. Jeff--
Ahhhhhh, the Aroma of Tacoma.
Turns out it was probably Seattle's stench being piped down to your fair City and released. In fact, the stench of Seattle is pretty much smelled throughout Washington State thanks to Dean Logan, Ron Sims and the other Circus KLOWNS.
10. I don't quite understand how in the dead of winter, in a combined sewer system, with tons of water for dilution, how you can have odors.
In the dead of summer where you don't have the dilution, yes, but not in the winter.
And, as diluted as the water is, it has no smell. So, what is making the odor? The odor control system?
11. actually.......the thing they are not telling you is that it is extremely unhealthy to be breathing 'sulphur' fumes of any kind. especially when they are in a mix such as fog and can therefore get into your lungs more easily and do more damage.
the next time you smell it [everyone] contact the air quality board and make sure to lodge a real complaint. follow through.
your health really does depend on this.
an example......hydrogen sulphide[ H2S] is a cellular poison. it affects all organs especially the nervous sysytem. the spectrum of illness depends on the concentation and duration of exposure. high concentration greater than 800 ppm can cause sudden death but smaller concentrations can mess with your mitochondrial cytochromes.similar to cyanide toxicity.
low level exposure [as seen in industial settings ...OR seattle]causes asthenia and bronchitis. high level exposures result in neurological and pulmonary symptoms.
really high concentrations will cause cardiac arrest due to brain stem toxicity.
this is not simply a "bad smell" issue.....don't let them fool you.this is a serious health issue.
nice huh?
so much for nanny state mentality. unless they are the nannies from hell.
12. When I first learned about the stink, I thought for sure it was my husband...then I later learned it was not him. :o)
13. Christmasghost, good point. Hydrogen sulfide, when exposed to moisture (such as is found in mucus membranes in the nose and respiratory tract) is converted into sulfuric acid. This stuff is dangerous. It can at least destroy the olfactory nerves and at worst kill you.
Seattle needs to be slapped with a huge fine for endangering the population with a harmful substance. (Now that is about as fitting an analogy for this town as ever I have seen...)
14. ERNurse......yup.....one would think that in the liberal capitol of the US that something like this would never happen. right? after all...aren't they the last word on all things harmful to the environment and all it's inhabitants?
i guess not after all.
what a huge surprise. i mean...i am SHOCKED. shocked i tell you! and here i thought they "cared".
heh heh heh..........
15. i should have added that H2S is also in the top 16 [out of 100] HEAVILY regulated substances on the EPA's list of toxic substances. the fines are large for this sort of thing.
funny..........and here i thought seattle was all about "doing the right thing".
guess not.
and, good point about it destroying the olfactory nerves....which after a fairly short period of time makes a person incapable of knowing they are still being poisoned.
maybe seattle is banking on that..........
16. It didn't end in Seattle. Kingston had the same stench that morning. All the kids at my school were gagging as they walked outside where I was on hall duty. My wife smelled it in Silverdale as well. It was very much like the smell I get whenever I drive through Tacoma near the dome. After having lived here a few years I don't even notice the Tacoma smell anymore unless it is particularly bad--but this was exactly like that--and yes, that oder comes around here on those heavy foggy mornings too. Pretty gross.
17. Interesting.......this morning around 6:45 along Fall City-Issaquah road by Klahanie, I was struck by an incredibly powerful sewer-like odor. It lasted all along the road passing Klahanie until I got to the new middle school/Freshman Campus. Seriously, I wonder if this isn't just a "sewer malfunction"........
18. scott.....seattle itself IS nothing more than a sewer malfunction.heh heh heh.........
but, on a serious note. H2S is dangerous to your health. DO NOT let the dean logan wanna bees in city and county government tell you otherwise.
contact the EPA and file complaints. bypass king county as you know they aren't going to do the right thing here.
in typical liberal-land fashion you are supposed to cover up and make excuses for your buddies that just happen to be poisoning the general public.
just like the old USSR..............
19. Definitely smelled it in West Seattle.
20. WHEN I WAS DOWNTOWN...I GOT KIND'A HOME SICK FOR TACOMA... THE "AROMA OF SEATTLE" WAS JUST A ONE TIME OCCURRENCE BUT WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT!!!
21. I remember the aroma of Tacoma sounds like Seattle finally has Tacoma beat!! I wonder If the stench made it over to Bellevue!!