The offensive smell coming from the Western Sugar factory in Lovell is back again this year, prompting a call to the state about the odor, but plant manager Ray Bode would like to inform the public that measures are being taken to eliminate the smell as quickly as possible, and as the spring progresses, the smell should go away.


“This year we did several things to mitigate the odor as much as possible,” Bode said. “Last year, quite frankly, was embarrassing for us and once [the smell] got started, we were way behind with trying to stop it. This year we started to take action as soon as campaign was over.”


The odor comes from water that brings the beets in during campaign that tends to get a buildup of organic matter (sugar, beets and plant parts) in it. That water normally stays on the property in ponds and either just evaporates or soaks into the ground, Bode said. The water sitting in these stagnant ponds has the potential for strong odors.


This year, Western Sugar is taking a proactive approach, pumping the water into aeration ponds as quickly as possible and aerating them 24 hours a day.


“If you can aerate (add air) to that water, it encourages a certain type of bacteria to thrive and use the organic matter as a food source,” Bode said. “Once that’s gone, there is no odor anymore.”


All of the standing water has been gone for about a week now, Bode said, and the aerators have been running since the first part of March. The odor that can still be smelled around town is mostly from drying mud ponds where the water had been stored. As the mud dries, the odor will be eliminated, Bode said. How long that takes will depend on the weather.


“I can’t say the odor has been 100 percent eliminated,” he said. “But it’s nowhere near as strong as it was last year and we’re trying to remove the cause of the odor as quickly as we can before it gets warmer.”


Aerating is a long process, Bode said, and plant workers are constantly monitoring the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of the ponds, which shows the amount of oxygen used in the water, and thus showing how much food and bacterial activity is present in the water.


As far as the aerated ponds, Bode said they produce an odor of “swamp water,” pungent but not nearly as offensive as the stagnant water. The odor from the aeration ponds may be smelled from time to time depending on which way the wind is blowing.


He said in past years, the water has become stagnant after campaign was over because it wasn’t being circulated. This created an environment in the standing water, which resulted in foul odors being released from the water. Last year, an extended campaign resulted in more water remaining in the mud ponds than usual.


Extended cool, wet weather conditions last spring kept the water in the mud ponds for a long time, causing the stink and bringing complaints from Lovell residents as the weather warmed up. This year, he expects the smell will instead go down as temperatures go up.


“When I was in Lovell last Friday, standing outside the office at the factory, there was a faint odor in the air, but it wasn’t strongly offensive. It’s not nearly as bad as it was last year, and it should be diminishing as time goes on.”


Because of the complaint this year, a state environmental officer will be coming out to monitor the air. Last year, an officer visited several times; the plant passed some of the tests and failed some as well. Because of the failed tests, the plant had to pay $20,000 in fines. Bode said if they hadn’t gotten the fine they still would’ve tried to correct the problem, but the fine added a further incentive.


“So obviously, besides trying to be a good neighbor in the community and not have offense odors coming from the property, there were certainly financial incentives for us to do it, too,” Bode said.


He called the Chronicle in response to the complaint received, and to inform the public of the company’s actions.


“I don’t blame anybody for calling, I just want to let them know what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re not just passively sitting back and saying, ‘gee, I hope this doesn’t happen again’.”