RINCON — The pungent odor plaguing rural neighborhoods on Savannah’s far outskirts since July will be investigated by the chemical processor many neighbors say is the smell’s source.
French chemical company DRT on Monday announced it will conduct a “comprehensive evaluation of reported odors in the area.” The action comes after Hugh Welsh, president of the company’s North American subsidiary, visited DRT’s Effingham County facility last week amid community complaints that the processing plant regularly emits a stench described by residents as a mix of turpentine and dead animal.
The frequency of the odor has given renewed rise to the label “Stinkin’ Rincon,” a nickname locals adopted during the 1980s and 1990s when a nearby paper mill produced a stinky industrial sludge byproduct. The action by DRT comes after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the problem last month.
The smell blamed on DRT has prompted the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to test the air for toxins multiple times since Sept. 26. All samples came back within acceptable limits, and DRT officials have denied the facility produces foul odors.
The study ordered by Welsh, to be conducted by Trinity Consultants and odor laboratory St. Croix Sensory, will monitor and analyze odors in and around DRT’s 85-acre processing plant. In a letter to community members, Welsh wrote, “I can say unequivocally that if the odors are coming from DRT, we will own that problem and work aggressively to fix it.”
The evaluation is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024. According to a press release, DRT will use the results to determine whether implementing additional plant improvements would minimize odors.
DRT’s Springfield facility recycles crude sulfate turpentine, a wood-processing byproduct for use in perfumes, adhesives and chewing gum.
Community uproar
The smell blamed on DRT went from nuisance to unacceptable in late October when a home near the processing facility exploded and caught fire due to a natural gas leak. One of the home’s occupants, a 69-year-old man, died from smoke inhalation. The deceased’s wife said the pungent odor played a role in the death, claiming the stench masked the tell-tale scent of rotten eggs that indicates a gas leak.
A day later, neighbors started a Facebook group under the banner “Stop The Toxins in Ebenezer” that has since grown to more than 600 members. The group’s founders held a community meeting Monday night in response to a recent surge in complaints about the odor. Several speakers at the meeting cited a “nauseating” smell in the neighborhood in recent weeks.
According to a state EPD database, the agency received four complaints about an odor in the area on Nov. 28 and Nov. 29.
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Also, the state Department of Public Health reported in November a spike in illnesses among those who live or attend school near the plant and asked residents to report symptoms.
Community concerns attracted the attention of state and local elected officials. Effingham Commissioner Phil Kieffer lives less than a mile from the plant and has called addressing the fetid smell a “quality-of-life” issue. State Rep. Bill Hitchens, R-Rincon, was a friend of the man killed in the house explosion and lobbied for DRT to investigate the odor and whether the processing plant is the source.
Hitchens said the study is a positive step, but not if it doesn’t solve the problem.
“What we all want is for the stench to be gone so we can go back to our normal lives,” he said.
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