Refinery smell

[Townsend]

I've driven by the refineries back and forth to work for almost 7 years now.  There's always been a smell.

I noticed yesterday the smell is much worse.  It stayed in my car with the windows down and and the sunroof open all the way downtown to 5th and Boston.

The smell was still there this morning as I drove by.  Not just a smell...a stick to your ribs, melt your face off kind of smell.

Anyone have any idea what the heck is going on there?

[sgrizzle]

What you smell is two refineries, a waste to energy plant, a toxic waste disposal facility and a wastewater treatment plant and power plant to the south. I've noticed the wastewater plant being particularly pungent and the windows have been quite strong out of the south most mornings.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

What you smell is two refineries, a waste to energy plant, a toxic waste disposal facility and a wastewater treatment plant and power plant to the south. I've noticed the wastewater plant being particularly pungent and the windows have been quite strong out of the south most mornings.

as opposed to weak windows out of the north?

This smell obviously doesn't cover all of downtown.  I never smell it.

[Townsend]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

What you smell is two refineries, a waste to energy plant, a toxic waste disposal facility and a wastewater treatment plant and power plant to the south. I've noticed the wastewater plant being particularly pungent and the windows have been quite strong out of the south most mornings.

This is new.  A considerable increase in olfactory overload.  I'm familiar with the other odors...this is refinery.  I know some people say they smell money but damn...these are some freakin' heinous Benjamins.

[RecycleMichael]

If it is a new smell, it is probably the hax-waste processing facility Permafix.

[grahambino]

i smelled it as well.
it smelled like fertilizer to me, so it was possibly nitrogen?  whatever it was i got a big mouthful of it on our evening walk. I accidentially gasped suddenly through my mouth for some reason and this horrible taste stuck in my throat for a few hours after.  fantastic.

[Gaspar]

Smeller's the feller!

If you smelt it, you dealt it!

That's my 4th grade input.

But seriously. . .What you are smelling is mercaptan.  Our refinery removes t-butyl mercaptan from the petroleum and packages it to be sold and added to natural gas so that you can smell it.

I've been around a small vile of t-butyl mercaptan, and at a distance it's enough to knock you on the ground.  If you were to lean over and take a full nostril sniff, I think you would probably pass out.

It's a very important product.  It is used in plastics, paints, adhesives and other "coating industry" products.  We have several industries here in Tulsa that rely on the production of mercaptan in one form or another, and we ship the stuff all over the world.

It's used in many pharmaceuticals and in it's altered states it is even used in food products.

It is so vile to our senses because we are genetically programmed to fear it.  Mercaptan is the smell created by rotting flesh, and our minds naturally associate it with death.  This makes it an excellent "attention getter," and this is why it is added to natural gas, rather than say hyacinth.

[Hometown]

I grew up here and its the same old refinery smell.  One of these days people will really deal with the fact that Tulsa stinks.  

If you can smell it, it's going into your body.

I know one refinery has promised improvements that will supposedly decrease the smell, but based on their past record, I am not hopeful.

Hey, does anyone know anything about Sunoco being converted to a terminal instead of a refinery?  This sounds like a dramatic development but I haven't seen any explanation in the local paper of what a terminal is or anything addressing the pros and cons of a terminal.

Question, would a terminal lessen or increase the smell in Tulsa?

[Townsend]

Thanks Gaspar

[patric]

Probably another discharge from the hazardous waste disposal plant at 20th & SW Blvd.

http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7050

[carltonplace]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar

Smeller's the feller!

If you smelt it, you dealt it!

That's my 4th grade input.

He who articulated it, particulated it

[nathanm]

Last night it smelled like refinery, not hazardous waste.

[Aa5drvr]

As I crossed the 23rd St bridge there was enough of a north wind to make me think most likely it was coming from the "Mid Continent" Refinery.  

Years ago I worked not far from Borg metals on N. Lewis and they cut up a tank that had been used to contain natural gas "odorant."   The entire neighborhood was fragrant for days.

People coming into our office would ask if there was a gas leak.  We would just light up a cigarette and say, "Naah, nothin' to worry about."

[GG]

That's the smell of money.  

That's the smell of the bases of our local economy.

Deal with it.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by unreliablesource

That's the smell of money.  

That's the smell of the bases of our local economy.

Deal with it.

That's the smell of bladder cancer.
That's the smell of lung cancer.
That's the smell of Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

That's how we deal with it.