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Fix coming for "atrocious" Seminole sewage smell

Posted at 7:11 PM, Mar 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-30 19:11:20-04

A smell so vile it will make you sick. People who live and work along Park Boulevard in Seminole are disgusted over the strong smell of sewage, but we're taking action for you and found out a fix is on the way for the atrocious smell.

“It’s vile. It's absolutely disgusting,” Brad Fayette said about the smell that plagues his 8 hour work day washing cars at Mister Car Wash. 

If you’ve driven down Park Boulevard, chances are you’ve had a whiff.

“It's like rotten eggs, really bad rotten eggs,” Kris Van Kirk exclaimed. It's a stench so bad it’ll make your stomach turn.

Just down the street at Extreme Signs, Anthony Sparacino added, “You can’t even go outside. Open the doors, the windows, nothing. It smells like somebody took a dump out there.”

Sparacino's landlord spent hundreds of dollars convinced they had a sewer leak inside his store.

“We tested everything. We looked at every last pipe to see if there are any leaks,” Sparacino added.

Turns out: The problem was a block away, at the Pinellas County Pump Station 16 in front of Home Depot. The county also found several manhole covers are also oozing the worst smell you can imagine.

Brad Fayette and his co-workers spend 8 hours breathing it in as they wash car after car at Mister Car Wash. 

"It’s vile to your nose,” Fayette said in repulsion. If the wind blows just right, it’s enough to make them nauseous. 

Pinellas County admits the smell is putrid, and it’s taken them awhile to sniff out the problem. 

Yet, help is finally on the way, including new ozone technology that will break down the bad smell and an 11 million dollar project to upgrade infrastructure like pipes to handle all the extra waste being flushed into the system.

The new equipment is on the way, but it’ll take about 6 months to a year before it gets fixed.

Duane Burela and his coworkers desperately hope it gets done soon, “Do it as fast as possible. It’s not good to smell crap all day.”