Metro Jacksonville

Jacksonville by Neighborhood => Urban Neighborhoods => Riverside/Avondale => Topic started by: RiversideHusker on December 10, 2011, 11:46:27 PM

Title: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: RiversideHusker on December 10, 2011, 11:46:27 PM
I don't think I'm crazy, but I swear that every few nights the air smells really strange in the Riverside area. It smells a little foul, kind of like dirty diapers...has anyone else noticed this? If I'm not imagining this, anyone know where this smell comes from?
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: Ralph W on December 11, 2011, 12:21:45 AM
That's what happens when too many families go green at the same time - go back to using cloth diapers and save them up for the weekly wash. He, he, he.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: Dog Walker on December 11, 2011, 08:44:26 AM
Riverside, Two possibilities come to mind.  If it's kind of a chemical funk it might be that our last few cold nights have caused some residents to fire up their old oil heaters.  One or two in a neighborhood can really stink up the air and there are a surprising number of the old drip type heaters still in use here.

JEA has also been doing sewer clean-outs, but they usually don't smell much for long.  If the smell is coming from a storm drain nearby, let JEA know about it and they will do a smoke test to find out if there is a leak between the sewer and storm drain systems.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: ronchamblin on December 11, 2011, 09:45:17 AM
There will be more "smells" in any environment during the cool winter days when two conditions exist.  One is the lack of wind or breeze.  The other is the layering or stratification of the air caused by cool air, which of course seeks the earth.  The cool or cold air, if it has no wind or breeze, will settle close to the ground, not mixing in the vertical directions as would be case if there was warm air to rise.  This settling, traps any odors close to the ground, odors which would normally be mixed by the rising warmer air with the air several thousand feet high.   


In other words, it is not so much that more "smells" are being created in the neighborhood, but it is simply that these same smells are not being mixed with the upper air via the wind and the updrafts created by the occasional warmer air.   
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: Ernest Street on December 11, 2011, 09:59:45 AM
Recently I was brought back in time to that Georgia Pacific paper mill funk smell that was legendary back 20 years ago....
Maybe it's the sewer pipe that they were "gifted" with to spread filth in the St Johns River...but in the middle mind you,so we won't notice :P
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: duvaldude08 on December 11, 2011, 09:04:57 PM
I passed gas. Sorry  ;D
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: nomeus on December 11, 2011, 09:32:25 PM
I was there this just this past Friday and my buddy and I both noticed a smell similar to a landfill. Never noticed it before. Also what is that really loud siren/horn sound that you hear sometimes? We were near the old Department Of Health and also near Parkview Inn when we heard it.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: Lunican on December 11, 2011, 11:43:17 PM
I believe the smell is coming from the chemical plant near Evergreen Cemetery. The wind seems to be carrying the smell further south than usual lately.

The sound you heard was the "Big Jim" steam whistle at the JEA waterworks plant at 1st & Main in Springfield. It goes off at 7am, 12pm, 1pm, and 5pm on weekdays.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: fsujax on December 12, 2011, 08:52:57 AM
I think it is a combination of that and the Buckman sewer plant. Any time there is a northeast wind, it blows those smells right over the city. SE wind means the smell of coffee!
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: ricker on December 12, 2011, 02:10:42 PM
If you were in the brewery district south of I-10, you might be familiar with that sticky sweet smell akin to auto body paint.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: Debbie Thompson on December 12, 2011, 02:11:09 PM
Nomeus, here's a link to an article about Big Jim, Jacksonville's oldest city employee, on the job since 1890. There's a bunch of other stuff on the internet if you "google" Big Jim in Jacksonville, Florida.
http://www.examiner.com/greater-jacksonville-in-jacksonville/big-jim-the-voice-of-jacksonville
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: If_I_Loved_you on August 22, 2012, 12:30:41 PM
Quote from: stephendare on August 22, 2012, 11:36:26 AM
any update on this?
The smell of money? Like Jake Goldbold once said about the paper mills.
Title: Re: Strange smell in the air at night?
Post by: billy on August 22, 2012, 01:06:05 PM
just like the Phil Collins song!