In what may be an even more maddening mystery than unexplained boom sounds, residents of a city in Utah say that they've been tormented by an unidentified smell for over a year. While no one in West Valley City who has caught wind of the odor can quite put their finger on its origin, they all agree on one thing: it's horrifying. One resident mused to a local TV station that "sometimes when you’re walking by it's like death."
More specifically, city officials describe the olfactory nightmare as something similar to a "sewer type smell" that is "very noticeable and very unpleasant." Remarkably, residents have been reporting the odd odor wafting through West Valley City at various periods since last year and recently the smell has returned with a vengeance. Last week, the city's communications manager said, around a dozen people called authorities with the ominous message that "the smell is back."
In light of this latest development, community leaders are taking a fresh look at the issue and are telling residents "if you smell something, say something" so that they can gather further details about the odor. But, based on their suspicions, authorities say that it may take more that Febreeze to fix the problem as the prime suspect for the source of the smell, a waste processing plant, actually sits outside city limits. And, unfortunately, attempts to get help from county and state agencies has proven futile so far, leaving officials contemplating a lawsuit in order to somehow squash the smell so that residents can breathe easy once again.