BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A meeting was held Wednesday night to discuss air quality in the city of Brunswick after hundreds of complaints about a foul odor.
According to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division Coastal District, they have been 235 air quality complaints made since last December.
“It kinda smells like sewer to me," said Reagan Thomas. "Rotten fish, dead shrimp, it is not very pleasant."
“Rotten stench, you know almost to that similar to rotten eggs," said Benjamin Cork.
The department says each complaint is logged into a complaint tracking system, and they have been investigating through methods including onsite inspections, modeling, weather data and odor complaint mapping.
A statement about the investigation says:
"The results of this evaluation were presented to the Coastal District Office, Brunswick Cellulose and the Brunswick Glynn Joint Water and Sewer Authority. Modeling does not point to the source of the odor, but it does suggest that the odor came from a one-mile buffer zone surrounding Brunswick Cellulose and the Academy Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. We have been unable to make a definitive determination of the source of the odor due to difficulties in tracking odors to a single source."
The lot also has industrial plants and a paper mill.
The Glynn Environmental Coalition has also completed a study through a partnership with the University of Georgia. That study concluded; "The probable source region includes the Georgia Pacific Plant. Over 80% of complaints were downwind of the Georgia Pacific plant."
Many living in Brunswick aren’t surprised as they guessed that might be the source.
“I've heard rumors that it might be by like the paper mills and stuff like that," Reagan Thomas said.
“I assumed it was either marshlands or the paper mill potentially," Benjamin Cork said.
The Coalition says they have made the Georgia Pacific plant aware of the study.
A sulfur dioxide study is planned for this winter to determine if the chemical, which could be harmful to residents over time, is present in the air.