Strong smell of sewage to linger in Portland until November

If you have noticed a stench in the air around Portland, your nose is not deceiving you.The Portland Water District said it is coming from the sewage treatment plant on the East End.The Water District is in the middle of a $12 million project.Construction is underway to upgrade the facility's aeration system.In order to do that, one of the tanks had to be taken offline and drained.With less air circulated into the tanks, the smell of sewage is stronger.Officials said the project was accelerated by 45 days in order to get another tank online to manage the smell.Managing the smell depends on how much pollution is coming into the wastewater plant."What we've tried to do in response to that is just put more flow where we have more air in our new tank, less flow through the old tank, but there are limits on how much of that shuffling we can do while still staying in operation," director of water services Scott Firmin said.The smell should dissipate in November when a new tank is scheduled to come online.Get the WCVB News App

If you have noticed a stench in the air around Portland, your nose is not deceiving you.

The Portland Water District said it is coming from the sewage treatment plant on the East End.


The Water District is in the middle of a $12 million project.

Construction is underway to upgrade the facility's aeration system.

In order to do that, one of the tanks had to be taken offline and drained.

With less air circulated into the tanks, the smell of sewage is stronger.

Officials said the project was accelerated by 45 days in order to get another tank online to manage the smell.

Managing the smell depends on how much pollution is coming into the wastewater plant.

"What we've tried to do in response to that is just put more flow where we have more air in our new tank, less flow through the old tank, but there are limits on how much of that shuffling we can do while still staying in operation," director of water services Scott Firmin said.

The smell should dissipate in November when a new tank is scheduled to come online.