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| Updated: 10/05/2011 8:30 am |
Published: 10/04/2011 9:48 pm |
BRYANT, AR - "It'll just about knock you down," said Bryant native Thomas Rollins.
It's a smell that's hard to describe.
"You come out here and it just smells like a skunk," said Bryant resident Ronetta Kirkpatrick.
"Well this is ten times worse than that," added Rollins.
Something in Bryant stinks. Millions of gallons of waste water has been sitting stagnant in tanks, troughs and ponds for weeks at Bryant's water treatment facility..
"We've sprayed chemicals on the surface that neutralize the odors, we've gone through several thousand dollars worth of that in the last few weeks," said Monty Ledbetter with Public Works.
Two thirds of the treatment plant is shut down under construction so the three-million gallons of water pumped through the plant each day has to go somewhere until the plant is back up to full speed. In the meantime, it sits untreated in troughs and the wind picks up the scent and carries it everywhere.
Once the construction is done, new equipment will clean the city's water more thoroughly. But until the full plant up up and running, neighbors like Rollins and Kirkpatrick will just have to wait it out - inside.
"You've got to shut your windows and just deal with it," said Rollins, "and hope the wind don't blow in that direction too much!"
The plant has been using the same jets for 15 years. The city started testing the new pump station, Tuesday, and workers say you can expect the smell to weaken even within the next few days.
