Human waste smells; lakes made of the stuff should reek. But unless you’re standing next to it, the Arcata wastewater treatment plant usually doesn’t. (Too badly.) That hasn’t been the case recently: the odor drifts over Highway 101, into drivers’ nostrils when they hit South G Street, out into Sunny Brae and into dozens of domiciles. 

The plant is the obvious mother of smells that have terrorized Sunny Brae recently, but it’s not the only parent. 

“Why does the Arcata sanitation plant smell so bad these days?” one person asked the Outpost a couple days ago. “Starting a month or two ago, the smell has been intense when driving north approaching Arcata. Today was particularly bad, but up until a few months ago I never noticed it.” 

“When I first began to smell it, I thought it was my vehicle burning coolant. Then I realized it wasn’t coming from my truck; it was everywhere,” said another in February. “I’ve asked everyone I can think of. Some people theorized that it’s the Arcata Marsh… but in twenty years of living around it, I’ve never smelled this, so I’m not sure that that is the answer.”

Well, my fetid friends, the facility is only partly to blame. Arcata’s director of environmental services Emily Sinkhorn told the Outpost that the facility had some of the highest levels of water inflow in a day ever recorded over the winter. Much of it was groundwater, funneled into the plant by aging sewer pipes. Expecting more heavy rain, city staff lowered the water levels in the oxidation ponds to ensure they had plenty of room; nature decided to throw their planning in the toilet and it hardly rained at all until Wednesday. The bacteria in the oxidation ponds, exposed to air, created a mighty stench and wafted for miles. 

But Sinkhorn said they managed to alleviate the problem during February and March. New and improved infrastructure at the facility gives the city greater control over where they send water, from treatment wetlands to UV disinfection basins to enhancement marshes, and they eventually managed to tamp down the smell. 

But residents in Sunny Brae kept on complaining, and Sinkhorn says the sources of these other smells are still unknown and likely outside city limits, perhaps a broken septic system. People described the smells as sulfuric or like sewage. They’re worse near Old Arcata and Golf Course roads.  

City staff are ensuring that there aren’t any problems with Arcata’s sewer system, which, so far, has held up under scrutiny. 

“We really appreciate detail when people call in,” Sinkhorn said. “‘I was here at this time, and the smell was coming from this direction.’ That is helpful for us. We will continue to follow up, particularly on the city’s infrastructure. We take that very seriously.”