PLEASANT GROVE, Utah – Pleasant Grove has an unpleasant problem; residents, business owners and city leaders said an awful smell is saturating the city and something needs to be done about it.
The scent of sewage is the source of the complaints. A facility on the west side of the city processes the waste of several Utah County cities.
A “Stop the Stench” rally will be held Thursday at a BMW dealership near the facility. The rally will go from noon until 1:15 p.m. The mayor of Pleasant Grove, other lawmakers and citizens are expected to attend the rally, where they will share ideas about possible solutions to the smell.
Residents said the facility doesn’t emit an odor every day, but they said on the days it does the smell is bad enough to make their eyes water.
“You can tell when you've hit Pleasant Grove because you can smell it,” Pleasant Grove Resident Andy Weight said. “Any time you flush, that's what it smells like. It smells horrible.”
The source of the smell is a Timpanogos Special Service District Water Reclamation facility just west of exit 275 of I-15. The facility sits on the opposite side of the highway from BMW of Pleasant Grove, located at 2111 West Grove Parkway. Collin Peay works at that dealership, and he said he’s heard an explanation for the odor.
“What we've been explained by their folks over there is it's one of the processes they go through to create a mulch that you would use for your garden,” Peay said.
Dianna Andersen of the Pleasant Grove planning commission said the smell may have cost the city a convention center by making a bad impression on those looking to build it.
“We pull up at the site and get out and open the doors, and it was exactly the wrong day to be there and the stench was incredible and they got back in their car and drove away,” she said.
Scott Darrington, Pleasant Grove city administrator, said they want the smelly operation gone.
“We're not asking them to move the treatment facility, just take the composting operation and move that somewhere else,” he said.
Fox 13 reached out to the treatment facility for comment but was told their spokesperson wouldn’t be available to return calls Monday.
