For Neighbors, Encina Project Is Heaven Scent

After years of pinching their nostrils and frantically slamming their windows, about 50 neighbors of a sewage-treatment plant in Carlsbad had an odd party Wednesday that probably won’t make the society pages.

There was a fresh sea breeze--laced with an unmistakable bathroom scent--as the neighbors, local dignitaries and esteemed members of a specially appointed Odor Panel broke ground on a $4.4-million project to banish chronic stink at the coastal Encina sewage plant.

Sewage was turned into a media event as glossy press packets were handed out, describing such sewage-treatment marvels as the “activated sludge process” and “anaerobic digestion.”

A public relations woman costumed as Flower, the skunk of “Bambi” fame, mingled with the crowd but did nothing antisocial.

Beverages and big brown cookies with chocolate chunks were served, although some people, for whatever reason, didn’t feel much like eating.

Still, it was a joyous event for residents of the mobile home parks and hillside developments who moved near Interstate 5 and Palomar Airport Road only to learn that their next-door neighbor had one helluva personal hygiene problem.

“When the wind came from the southeast, it was not pleasant. All you could do was close the windows,” said Ron Chapman, who, with his wife, has lived in a mobile home park near the sewage plant since 1986.

But Chapman tries to look on the bright side.

“We used to live in West Covina. The smog was worse there than the smell is here,” he said.

Neighbors aren’t the only ones who have suffered from the 25-acre sewer plant, which treats waste from homes and businesses in its 125-square-mile area of North County.

The area served includes Carlsbad and Vista, as well as people living within San Marcos’ Vallecitos Water District, the Leucadia County Water District, the Encinitas Sanitary District and the Buena Sanitation District.

Carlsbad City Councilman Eric Larson told the gathering that the plant’s potent rotten-egg smell hasn’t exactly been a source of municipal pride in a city that touts its tony downtown and coastline as a tourist mecca.

“When you consider what the plant does, there’s an easy understanding for the odor problem,” Larson said.

However, he pointed out that thousands of motorists driving along I-5 can’t help associating Carlsbad with stench.

“We certainly don’t want that to be an ongoing vision of the city of Carlsbad,” he said.

Such worries and woes might end within a year, when workers complete the project to stem the aroma in the plant’s aeration basins, where air is added to waste water as part of the biological treatment.

Under the project, stinky air will be trapped by fiberglass covers over the basins and then pumped to enclosed facilities where chemicals and filters will reduce odors.

“Neighbors definitely will notice a big difference when the project is completed,” said Bernard Rappaport, a Vista City Council member and chairman of the Encina Waste-water Authority, a joint powers authority made up of the member districts, which co-own and administer the plant.

The war against foul air has had its heroes, who were honored Wednesday. They are the eight members of the select Odor Panel, neighbors who volunteered to help the plant solve its smell problem.

People such as Chuck French, Don McKeone and Leslie Tanner never thought good citizenship would lead to something like this. At the behest of plant officials, these nonsmokers also gave up spicy foods and fragrances to keep a clear nose for important detective work.

“Sure, it would have been a lot more fun to be out playing golf or watching TV,” Tanner said. “But how can you complain about something if you don’t try to help?”

Plant officials trained them to sniff out certain odors, to distinguish among rotten eggs, sulfur, garlic and acid smells. When the plant acted up, members of the Odor Panel would perk up their noses and provide intelligence to help pinpoint where the stink was coming from.

It was weird work, but somebody had to do it.