Big Stink Update: I just called Councilwoman Claudette Burroughs-White and she explained the problem and it is not the City. The problem lies with Cone Mills White Oak denim plant.
There is a dye that Cone uses in their manufacturing that is causing all kinds of problems. Normally they are able to treat their sludge discharge enough to allow it to be sent to the City's sewer treatment... but not for the last couple of weeks. The phosphorous levels (thus the fishy smell) are so high in the plant's discharge that they have been denied sending their waste to the City. The resulting sludge has now become "petrified" and very putrid and there is no fix yet in sight.
Claudette says "it's a real mess" and she has heard of people getting sick because of the smell in the last few days. FEMA and local disaster services have been on the scene for about a week trying to fix the problem.
The City might be keeping this disaster-in-the-making low key because Cone is such an important part of the communtity. Biting the hand that feeds you is never a good practice, but if the that hand feeds you also makes you sick... well...
Cone just announced they are building a new denim plant in Guatemala that "will benefit from Guatemala's realistic wages, highly-skilled workers, transportation infrastructures, and exemption from import tariffs," said Wilbur Ross, chairman of International Textile Group." This sludgy development doesn't bode well for Cone's parent company's request for the City to ease their waste water rates. The negotiations for the rate reduction started when they merged Cone and Burlington Industries into ITG back in March according to the Triad Business Journal. I'll bet that denim dye disposal and the resulting sludge and stink is not an issue at their new $90M denim plant in Guatemala, Ross just forgot to mention it.
I've got a call in to Donna Gray, head of Citizen Services to get the scoop. I'll keep you posted.
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Something stinks in East Greensboro.
I am used to smelling the Osborne Treatment plant when I take the kids to roller hockey at the Greensboro Sportsplex on 16th Street behind the old Carolina Circle Mall. Everytime we pass that way the kids take a big whiff and turn to me and say a two syllable "Da-ad" as if my stuff could actually stink that bad. But now the "Da-ad" accusations are happening while I sit on my own couch watching TV here on bucolic Cypress Street.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed the smell on Yanceyville Street near Revolution Softball Field where Cornwallis terminates and sporadically on Summit Avenue near the Phillips Avenue intersection. But last night the stench was being drawn in by my whole house attic fan.
The smell is not the all-to-familiar Osborne Plant stench that will continue to be a problem once Carolina Circle is demolished to make way for rumored new development. The aroma is more like one you might experience walking on the pier at Morehead City next to Sanitary Fish Market after the fishing boats have been docked for a couple of hours.
I'll call and see if the City can explain it to me.
8:19:19 AM 
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