State launches investigation to track down offensive odor

WILMINGTON -- When the cat urine smell becomes too strong, Nick Zachetti simply sprays Febreze on his pillow and nearly smothers himself.

"I put a pillow over my face just to give myself something to breathe through," said Zachetti, who has become familiar with the odor since moving to his Wilmington neighborhood 11 years ago.

Like many in the side-by-side Carolina Heights and Ardmore neighborhoods, Zachetti is familiar with the smell. He and his neighbor, Pamela Waite, were among more than a dozen residents who alerted N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) officials to a particularly strong smell during the weekend of Nov. 25.

"When you smell that," Waite said, "you don't think, 'Oh, I want to bottle that and do a Chanel ad around it.' "

DEQ review

Brad Newland is the Wilmington regional office's supervisor for the N.C. Division of Air Quality. Responding to residents, Newland wrote that it is difficult to point to what facility or mixture of facilities caused the odor and also said cold fronts during the period likely trapped odors near the surface.

"I know that the catty odors have impacted downtown from time to time, and in my personal experience, the odor seems to vary. Sometimes it smells like pure cat urine to me, and sometimes it smells similar but different," Newland said.

As part of its investigation, DEQ officials locked in on on a line of industries sitting on a north-northwestern line from the Carolina Heights area. That line crosses Invista, Wilbara, the New Hanover County landfill, the Kinder Morgan terminal on North Sixth Street and, perhaps most curiously, Fortron.

"Along that line, it's quite possible that all these different facilities are contributing, but it's impossible to say," Newland said.

DEQ investigators detected odors at each of the facilities during its investigation during the week of Nov. 27. They also learned that Kinder Morgan had spilled -- and reported -- 1,200 to 1,300 gallons of urea ammonium nitrate on Nov. 22, cleaning it up into the following week.

Still, much of Newland's investigation and note to local officials and concerned residents focused on the Fortron facility on U.S. 421 North. In the past, that plant has drawn attention from regulators in connection with a cat odor smell.

Fortron produces a heat-resistant polymer known as polyphenylene sulfide, or PPS, that is used in automobile fuel pumps, water pumps and transmission systems, among other uses. The company is a joint venture of Celanese's Ticona and Japan-based Kureha Corp.

According to company records provided to DEQ, the company has made 18 upgrades to its facility -- totaling more than $1.5 million -- in an effort to mitigate the odors.

In 2018, the company told regulators, it plans to install sampling capability in a stack in an effort to identify the source of odors and increase a polymer dryer vent capacity -- projects that will cost about $200,000.

When DEQ officials contacted Fortron in connection to the November incident, an inspection team from the company located a pressure release device that needed repair.

"Through the years, they've done a lot of things in response to these odor complaints to try to address them," Newland said, "they're continuing to do that, and we're continuing to encourage them to do that."

Where does the smell come from?

Fortron told DEQ it uses acetone in its manufacturing process as a solvent, Newland said. Eventually, the acetone breaks down into mesityl oxide, a chemical that is largely trapped along with other emissions and destroyed in an on-site thermal oxidizer.

Travis Jacobsen, a Celanese spokesman, wrote, "For more than 20 years, Fortron has been proactive in trying to minimize this compound's impact (by) sending all of our process vents to pollution control equipment that is not required by any current regulation or standard."

The oxidizer is not, Newland said, required by regulatory standards. At some points in the capture process, he added, there are fugitive emissions, or often-pressurized points where gases leak.

When mesityl oxide is in those fugitive emissions, it reacts with hydrogen sulfide leaching from swamps or landfills and creates a separate compound known as MMP or Feline P.

A recognized food additive, MMP is known to contribute to the scent of cabernet and other wines. Newland also found research indicating it can be found in the brewing and breadmaking processes.

MMP can be smelled by humans at parts per trillion (ppt) levels and is not, according to Newland, a registered air pollutant.

Jacobsen, the Celanese spokesman, agreed, writing, "The 'catty smell' is not harmful to humans and is entirely environmentally safe in the quantities that are smelled by the public."

The chemical can often be detected by the human nose at parts per trillion levels, while instruments will detect it only at parts per million levels. In the 1990s, DEQ's Wilmington office studied the odors, and Newland was on the team.

"I remember standing in a plume of this stuff and taking these samples and thinking, 'I know I've got it now,' " Newland said. "But when I took it back to the lab, there was nothing to be found, nothing to be detected."

'Find some regulatory way'

No matter where the smell is coming from, Newland and DEQ officials ask that residents call the local DEQ office and report any unusual odors as soon as they detect something amiss. To report smells, residents are encouraged to call 910-796-7215 and ask for air quality.

"If you're experiencing odors," Newland said, "we need to be notified in a timely manner because it's difficult to go back in time and ascertain how bad it was and what the cause may have been."

In the instance of the November incident, DEQ officials learned of the odor when they came to work on Monday and were unable to determine how intense the smell was.

Ardmore and Carolina Heights residents are left wondering whether more can be done to curb a smell that is strong enough to wake some up in the wee hours of the morning.

"It's enough to affect quality of sleep and smell," Waite said, adding, "After you've gotten me up at 5 a.m., you've already done your damage."

Reporter Adam Wagner can be reached at 910-343-2389 or Adam.Wagner@GateHouseMedia.com.

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