City Searching for Source of "Putrid" Smell

Residents of Knightsville, the Budlong area and near Plainfield Pike might have had the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "That Smell" on their minds recently.

That's because of a smell that has been described as "a putrid burning smell" settled on portions of the city, prompting residents' phone calls to City Hall and a state Department of Environmental Management inquiry into the cause.

Deputy Director of Administration Carlos Lopez last week told members of the City Council's Public Works subcommittee that numerous residents have called City Hall about the "horrible smell," which apparently did not originate at the Central Landfill in Johnston.

Lopez said the calls were persistent and some people suggested that they might be originating from tilling of land "at the old pig farm." Another possibility is they might be originating from turbines at a National Grid power station that produced a noticable smell years ago, Lopez said.

The DEM was intending on visiting the pig farm, Lopez said.

The smell has since subsided.