Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › RANT-Nucor plant stinks!
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July 8, 2014 at 12:38 am #611895
Up-at-1amMemberAt 1am last night and then again at 4am the Nucor steel plant released a terrible smell that reminds me of electronics smell but more intense. If I had to guess I would say it comes from slag that is part of their production. They do that every now and then, and I can smell it when the winds come from the north.
Since it is quite warm, windows are open, and we are exposed to the fumes easily. Slag fumes are not healthy (http://www.gerdauameristeel.com/products/msds/docs/Mill-English/Steel%20Mill%20Scale%20MSDS%20_NA_%202-15-12.pdf), and I think while the noise is loud some nights, and has kept me awake, the fumes make me worry about health effects. It does not help that I have a newborn at home – they are known to be especially sensitive to toxic fumes, and long term effects such as asthma have been associated with polluted environments.
Does anyone knw if a study was done on what those fumes are, and what concentration levels they reach? That would be very helpful.
If not, would anyone join me in requesting a study from the city or EPA (iI would need to ind out how to do that)?
July 8, 2014 at 12:44 am #810587
wssortMemberIt does stink, like chlorine. Glad I’m not the only one to notice.
July 8, 2014 at 12:49 am #810588
MrJTMemberI bet if it was really an issue, it would have come up in the last 100 years, probably long before you moved in.
July 8, 2014 at 12:59 am #810589
WSBKeymasterUp at 1, I would suggest you contact the North Delridge Neighborhood Council, which is the community council in the area. In many cases, if someone notices an issue, the local community advocates already have experience with/knowledge of it. Overall, air quality issues and complaints go to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency http://pscleanair.org – NDNC is at http://ndnc.org
Nucor has an environmental officer and if you haven’t tried contacting them directly, they would likely be able to answer your inquiry too.
-TR
July 8, 2014 at 1:01 am #810590
miwsParticipantYou might want to contact Puget Sound Clean Air with your concern about the odor/fumes:
Mike
July 8, 2014 at 1:02 am #810591
miwsParticipantJuly 8, 2014 at 1:30 am #810592
vogelParticipantHave you tried calling Nucor about it? I’ve found them to be extremely responsive to concerns in the past.
Also I’m pretty sure that the WSB requires that you let a business try to resolve your issue before posting a rant here.
July 8, 2014 at 2:06 am #810593
mark47nParticipantChlorine? Probably not Nucor. Also, its unlikely that mill scale is the source of odors, as it’s a solid, not a gas or aerosol. That’s not to say that odors don’t periodically emanate from there and that sometimes they are stinky.
July 8, 2014 at 2:06 am #810594
mark47nParticipantChlorine? Probably not Nucor. Also, its unlikely that mill scale is the source of odors, as it’s a solid, not a gas or aerosol. That’s not to say that odors don’t periodically emanate from there and that sometimes they are stinky.
July 8, 2014 at 2:17 am #810595
mark47nParticipantOne other thing; the plant has been there for 100 years, you must have known it was there when you moved in. If you didn’t want to live near heavy industry why move near by?
July 8, 2014 at 3:10 am #810596
Up-at-1amMemberThanks for the helpful posts. I will contact Nucor to see what they know, thanks for pointing that out vogel. Also, thanks for the hints to pscleanair, and the North Delridge Communi Council!
I did not mean to blame Nucor. I don’t know where the gases come from, but I do want to know what they are. The main reason for reaching out to this community was to see what resources there are, and if this might have been done in the past…
Thanks!
July 8, 2014 at 3:26 am #810597
karenParticipantI am pretty sure it’s not Nucore. My bet is the cement plant down the hill. I’ve been noticing the smell for a couple of nights now. A few years ago we had a lot of this smell in South Park, where I lived. It turned out to be LaFarge. Since LaFarge has shut down it’s large stack, we very rarely get the smell. However, when the weather is warm and the cement plant (Stoneway?) is running, the smell will rise up over the hill to us.
No, it’s not good for you – it NOx. Call Puget Sound Clean air! The key give away is the “Chlorine – like” smell.
Read this for more info:
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Clean-Air-Agency-cites-Lafarge-after-South-Park-1109310.php
http://www.pscleanair.org/programs/community/southpark/air_monitoring.aspx
July 8, 2014 at 3:26 am #810598
GinaParticipantAfter Bethlehem Steel added the baghouse years ago, the smell has pretty much gone away.
July 8, 2014 at 7:28 am #810599
WSBKeymasterWe’ve received two e-mail reports tonight of a bleachy smell – nowhere near North Delridge FWIW – one from Gatewood, one from High Point, and I offered the same advice. Just noting here as a datapoint. – TR
July 8, 2014 at 4:26 pm #810600
Up-at-1amMemberOh, thanks Karen! Isubmitted an odor nuissance complaint on this website:
http://www.pscleanair.org/contact/complaint.aspx
(They say that this is faster and easierfor them than calling)
Since they can help us better with more data, I’d encourage anyone who smells simething they think is not normal and possibly due to industry there.
Gina, that makes sense, and I don’t smell this very often, but at times it is 1-2x a week I’d say. This was the firsttimein a while.
July 8, 2014 at 11:22 pm #810601
trickycooljParticipantI’ve noticed off smell in High Point several nights in the last week (4th of July aside) but a lot of times it smells like low ride baking in the sun, which is odd at night when I’m going to bed. But it’s also peak allergy season for me so I’m also congested and not smelling things well anyway.
Chalked it up to the current weather system since the winds are opposite their usual direction (air traffic is taking off north right now) and it’s felt pretty humid which I figure is trapping smell lower in the atmosphere.
July 9, 2014 at 12:20 am #810602
JayDeeParticipantKeep in mind there is a old landfill north of Nucor and I often smell a stench taking the Admiral off-ramp when the wind is from the north and so 90% of Nucor is south of there. I am not certain if there are any active controls on the off-gassing.
July 9, 2014 at 1:37 pm #810603
LisaHParticipantSmells like low tide / wet dog.
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