Unusual smell

[Lady D]

Is anyone along 30A smelling anything unusual? This smell resembles either a sewer type smell or a sulfur type smell to me. Smelling it along most of Front Beach Rd. in P.C. Beach and in a small area of Thomas Dr. A woman working in Walgreens said the smell is from a paper mill in Panama City and the smell is carried by the wind and has been smelled before over in Walton County.

 

[tsutcli]

Yes, from Smurfit-Stone paper mill located near Tyndal AFB. When the conditions are right we get that smell.

 

[Lady D]

Thanks tsutcli, unfortunately the conditions have been right too much this week, at least for the past couple of days.

 

[sunspotbaby]

My Dad worked in a paper mill all his life. Whenever we rode by and complained of the stench, he'd say "Smells like MONEY to me!" :roll:

 

[Lady D]

Hey sunspotbaby, is it a chemical they are using that causes that smell? Smells like the sewer smell I'm used to smelling in our hometown, sometimes smells like a sulfur smell. Haven't smelled it today along Front Beach but did way down Thomas Dr.

 

[Matt J]

It's not actually the paper mill itself, but the Arizona Chemical (subsidiary I think might be separate now) plant next door that extracts various chemicals from the pine trees.

 

[sunspotbaby]

Hey sunspotbaby, is it a chemical they are using that causes that smell? Smells like the sewer smell I'm used to smelling in our hometown, sometimes smells like a sulfur smell. Haven't smelled it today along Front Beach but did way down Thomas Dr.

I googled it and got this...
One type of odor comes from a special technique—called kraft pulping—which uses heat and chemicals to pulp wood chips for making paper. This reaction produces gaseous sulfur compounds called "total reduced sulfur" or TRS gases. The odor associated with TRS gases is typically described as "rotten cabbage or eggs."

 

[tsutcli]

That's right sunspotbaby. Was going to post the same thing. Worked for sometime for a company that sold paper mill chemicals - fortunately I didn't work in that Div. but had the opportunity to travel with sales reps. that did from time to time. Don't ever want to be down wind of the mill.