When smell and sanity are at odds

One smell has long flowed through part of the Appalachian foothills — money.That's what longtime Kingsport residents would jokingly tell you when smells waft from the town's industrial sites through neighboring communities. What they really meant was those industries were busy making their buck.Two industrial sites — now run by Eastman Chemical Co. and Domtar Corp. — have both contributed their fair share of smells throughout years of manufacturing dating all the way to the early 20th century, residents said.A few years ago, one smell soured. That's also when the paper mill in downtown Kingsport, owned by Domtar, stopped manufacturing paper and started recycling containerboard material. Some residents noticed through their nose."I have lived here my whole life," said Kingsport resident Richard Helms. "I grew up here. I can remember when [the mill] was [owned by] the Mead. When you come to Kingsport, you would have the paper mill smell."The mill shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it was down, Helms noticed the odor's absence. When the mill restarted as a new operation a few years later, he wasn't the only person who noticed a smell notably different than before. City employees and officials noticed, too.The comparisons that once likened Kingsport's smells to money changed to "rotten eggs," "foul," "carcasses," "sewage" and more."Paper plants smell. That's common knowledge. But two years ago, I started noticing it. I was just like, what is this smell?" said Angie Williams, who has lived in Kingsport for 26 years."It was knocking me down," she said.The suspected culprit: a 25-acre lagoon system used to treat the mill's wastewater. New operations brought new sulfuric smells."Our nose is a warning detector, but it can't tell us how dangerous what we're smelling is," said Pamela Dalton, an olfactory scientist and psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a research institute in Philadelphia that studies taste and smell.Dalton has researched smell for decades, including in communities with odor issues."Even if it doesn't cause a physical health concern of any sort, people pay a lot of attention to their odor environments," she said."Even when you say, it's an odor of this intensity and it's reaching homes, the degree to which people will complain has much to do with their own personal perception and response to odors than what is being breathed in or detected. I think some people worry, 'What am I smelling? Is it dangerous?'"Hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, is the colorless, rotten-egg smelling gas that can emit from paper mills. Its odor is detectable at levels as low as 0.5 parts per billion at a time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration exposure limit standard for H2S levels is 40,000 times that at 20 parts per million.A document with information from a Feb. 14, 2024 meeting between Domtar, the city and engineering representatives — obtained by Six Rivers Media through Freedom of Information Act request — states the source of H2S odors from Domtar at that time ranged from 10 to 50 parts per million. The odors came from the wastewater treatment plant clarifiers and lagoons.That is an instant reading directly from the wastewater before the odor dispersed and is not an average measurement of the gas over a period of time. That measurement is not a situation normally encountered by mill employees, Domtar said."These readings would not be indicative of the H2S levels after dispersion. This type of monitor is for personal safety and is not intended for measuring air quality levels on a continuous basis," Domtar said in a statement to Six Rivers Media."We monitor areas at the mill where H2S may be present, including the wastewater treatment plant, to ensure the safety of our employees and by extension communities outside the mill property."Those tiny particles of odor, after being dispersed, have made themselves at home with some Ridgefields residents, the neighborhood downwind from the Domtar lagoon, along the South Fork of the Holston River."There's some nights, it'll wake us up," said Ashley Carter, who moved into the neighborhood three years ago. "It's like it's coming through our vents now. We don't keep our windows open or anything."Carter isn't the only person who's been woken up by the odor. A few others in Ridgefields share nights of interrupted sleep and the smell of rotten eggs as the first thing they sense before opening their eyes.California, which regulates odor and H2S, caps H2S emissions at an average 0.03 parts per million over the course of an hour to control odor. That is not an instant reading.Tennessee does not regulate odors. Neither does the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Domtar and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation do not test for odor levels."The sad part is, [the mill is] in compliance with the current odor permits," said then-alderman Darrell Duncan in part of a Sept. 13, 2024 email in correspondence with a resident about the odor. Duncan is currently vice mayor.TDEC most recently investigated odor complaints about Domtar Sept. 3 and 4 and found them in compliance with their air permits. TDEC said EPA standards that regulate H2S do not apply to Domtar."The odor associated with the wastewater lagoons is likely due to a combination of sulfur-containing compounds, which may include hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Monitoring for odor is not a regulatory requirement, so we do not measure the composition of fugitive sources," said Jan Martin, director of U.S Public Affairs at Domtar.Smell is both an adaptive and maladaptive response because it can warn us of things to stay away from, but can't indicate how dangerous what we're smelling really is for our health, according to Dalton."It probably evolved as a way to detect danger, more than for things that were good for us, because it works very, very quickly under those circumstances," she said. "People are responding almost the way their biology intended for them to respond."Odor sensitivity can depend on its concentration in the air, how often you're exposed and how long that exposure lasts. It can also depend on your age, health and pregnancy.Acute exposure to H2S can cause nausea, headaches or skin and eye irritation.Your perception of a smell and your response to it vary based on your sensitivity, Dalton said. A single odor stimulus doesn't have the same effect on everyone.The odor caused nausea and stinging eyes for Helms when he let his dog out one day. He lives in Ridgefields.Outdoor activities for some who live in the neighborhood are off the table because of the odor — whether that's taking a work-from-home lunch break outside, sitting out on the patio for the sunset, grilling or using their backyard pool."I can't enjoy my home anymore. I love my house. We've done a lot of work to it. It's my single largest investment, and suddenly, I'm not able to be out in my yard because the smell is so bad," said Williams."I'm an outside person. I like to be outside. I spent all this money to put a large deck on my house. And when you have company over, all they do is [sniff]," said Myrna Ball, who lives in Ridgefields.Other residents told Six Rivers Media that the odor is strong enough to smell from within their homes. Others have tried addressing the odor inside with air purifiers and filters.The unpredictability of when the smell will come adds another level of frustration. Some residents downwind from the lagoon stressed the agitation of not knowing when they should plan their outdoor excursions."You can be stressed by an odor that you don't want in your environment; it's unpleasant and it changes how you behave," said Dalton. "Maybe you don't have the outdoor gathering or you don't know whether you can have it, the uncertainty, you know, is it gonna smell all the time, or is it just gonna happen in the middle of the party?"Dalton has studied communities dealing with odor issues, and variability in odor detection is a common thread between them."We found in some communities you have a small number of people, not necessarily the ones living closest to the source, that are extremely vocal… but then you'll find that four or five of their neighbors smell it and it doesn't bother them," Dalton said."It's not a single stimulus that has the same effect on everyone," she said.Tommy Littrell thinks Domtar's odor has improved. He lives along Netherland Inn Road, downstream from the mill as well as Kingsport's sewer plant. He also rides his bike up and down the Greenbelt, which passes by Domtar, almost every day."When you live near facilities and within city limits, there's just some things you have to tolerate," he said. "Whether that be some noise, high traffic, or smells from the factories and the plants that are in place. That just comes with the nature of where you're living at."Suzanne Barrett Justis leases a building in downtown Kingsport, a couple of blocks from Domtar's mill. She's leased the building since 2007 and spends her days there painting at her studio.She considers herself a bit "nose-blind" to the smell now, but there are some days when it's noticeable — especially with visitors from out of town."I'd love to see it change, because you bring new people here and they ask 'How do you live with that stench?'"Some residents share this shame when welcoming visitors."We've had multiple friends that have been looking for places to live around here, and we've had a couple places at our condo open up for sale and they're like, 'I'm not living there, not with that smell,'" said Carter.Odor in other communitiesKingsport isn't the only city dealing with smells from a containerboard mill.A few hours southeast in South Carolina, a plant known as New Indy Catawba caught the EPA's attention when residents in South and North Carolina were frustrated by noxious odors from the mill. A $103 million settlement is being split between residents and remedial actions to take care of the smell. More than 80% of those funds are supposed to go toward remedial actions.Nowadays, Dalton said, we think about smell as an element of our lives that make experiences more enjoyable. Whether that's food, beverages, our favorite candles or colognes, even the smell of our partner or our babies. That sensitivity to smell can cause us to have emotional responses on the other end of the spectrum, too.And it can be hard to undo those negative associations."Once you sensitize the community, it's really hard to go back unfortunately," said Dalton."It's a complicated socioeconomic, industrial exposure question. It's what we've been studying for years. We're trying to help communities, and at the same time, guide industry to do and share the right things in advance, so people aren't deprived," said Dalton.Domtar is constructing an anaerobic digester to address its wastewater odor. So far, it's cost about $75 million.They broke ground in August and expect to finish in October 2026. For some, that's not quick enough."It's kind of like, everybody hang on till fall 2026. Is it going to be fixed? I don't know," said Williams.Rick Wagner and Allison Winters contributed reporting.Jorgelina Manna-Rea is an environmental reporter at Six Rivers Media through Report for America.More InformationMore InformationA part per million is equivalent to one second about every two weeks. A part per billion is equivalent to one second every 32 years.Filing a complaintYou can file a complaint a Domtar's Kingsport mill website: https://domtarpackagingkingsport.com/Places To GoPlaces To GoYou can file a complaint a Domtar's Kingsport mill website: {span}https://domtarpackagingkingsport.com/