Refinery smell

[tulsascoot]

It smells like Victory.

Oh wait, no. That's what Napalm burning in the morning smells like.

[allspunout]

When I got home Monday night I thought something was dead in my front yard.  41st Utica area
When I went to the grocery store 41st Peoria the death smell was down there too.

[Hometown]

I hear that Houston stinks too.

The fact that we stink is sort of like a family secret that no one in power really acknowledges or addresses.

Add "Eliminate Odor" to Tulsa's very, very long "to do list."

[SXSW]

If you're ever hiking Turkey Mtn. you get a heavy dose of the wastewater treatment plant on the northside.

[SXSW]

quote:Originally posted by Hometown

I hear that Houston stinks too.

The fact that we stink is sort of like a family secret that no one in power really acknowledges or addresses.

Add "Eliminate Odor" to Tulsa's very, very long "to do list."

Any city with heavy industry "stinks".  Cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. have similar smells from their factories.  The refinery smell is probably one of the worst though.  It really depends on the wind.  Where I used to live in Norman was near the waste treatment plant and it smelled really bad sometimes and other times not at all.  Sometimes you can even smell that thing on the OU campus when it's particularly bad.

[RecycleMichael]

The paper mills in the Northwest smell terrible. They call it the aroma of Tacoma.

[Hometown]

Maybe we could turn into a positive.  Not sure how to cast the cancer deaths claimed in earlier neighborhood lawsuits in a positive light though.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The paper mills in the Northwest smell terrible. They call it the aroma of Tacoma.

Tulsa-sized Green Bay makes a lot of toilet paper, and from the smell it would seem they test it there, as well.

[Townsend]

quote:Originally posted by patric

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The paper mills in the Northwest smell terrible. They call it the aroma of Tacoma.

Tulsa-sized Green Bay makes a lot of toilet paper, and from the smell it would seem they test it there, as well.

Rhinelander, WI has a paper mill.  The smell is impressive and the snow within blocks of the place is bright yellow from the sulfur...no eating that snow either.

Back in Tulsa the smell from the refinery was significantly reduced last night and this morning.

[Matthew.Dowty]

Probably just the wind direction.

Every time the weather changes you get a good whiff of it at 17th and Southwest Blvd.

[cannon_fodder]

I hike at Turkey Mountain a lot and while I have caught an occasional whiff of sewage, certainly it is not "always" and it has never been a pungent smell.

Refineries and sewer plants stink.

Paper mills stink in Southwest Oklahoma as well as they do in the NW or northern Minnesota.

Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids Iowa has a weird stink to it.  

Breweries can stink.

Slaughterhouses and tanneries (always next to each other), better believe they stink.

Now the McCokrmick spice factory in Ankeny Iowa, now that is something we should attract downtown.  Love that place.  You can smell it from I-35 even.  Tax breaks for good smelling industries!

Bakeries
Spice plants
Flower greenhouses (on the roofs downtown!)
Commercial meat smoke houses
Coffee mill
Cedar wood-chip factory

Yep.  A whole new direction.

[Gaspar]

Mercaptans stink.  That's it.  They have never been linked to any cancer or other ailment other than perhaps headache from the odor.

They are naturally occurring sulfur compounds.  Our brains and the brains of many mammals are wired to associate them with "disgust" as a mechanism to avoid disease, decay, spoiled food, and death.

They stink. Deal with it.  It's part of living in a city with industry.  I have yet to find one without sights or smells that are objectionable.

[Hometown]

We used to roll down our windows when we drove past the Wonder Bread Bakery on Sheridan.

Then there are those drivers you don't see but you smell.  You know the car has already passed you then the smell catches up.

There was a neighborhood of shops owned by folks from India and the East Indies in Manhattan.  What incredible spicy delicious strong smells.

Then there's Tulsa and her refineries.  Old Stinky herself.

[Hometown]

I have yet to live in a city that Stinks as much as Tulsa -- other than Tulsa.  No one else has gotten close.  Havn't lived in Houston or Love Canal, but lots of other places and yes, the stockyards in Ft. Worth had a certain odor but nothing as widespread or as noxious as here.  It's a little silly to try and dismiss it.

[PonderInc]

The refinery/toxic smells are always worst on very calm days.  On windy days the odors disperse...or, at least, blow on someone else.  On very calm days, the chemicals seem to hover over an increasingly large area.  (Starting west of the river, then settling in the river "valley," and wafting up hill from there.)  

The other morning, I could smell it at 41st and Harvard! (This is very rare thing.)

I used to live near the river, and there were times I would wake up at 2:00 AM b/c of the smell and have to close the windows.  I am certain that some industries are "belching" out products at night that they would never process during the day.  

I've heard that the EPA has regulations about "visible emmissions."  It's like the old question about trees falling in the forest... If you pollute at night and nobody's there to see/smell/test it...