Working to solve the problem; City of Jacksonville reveals results of year-long urban odor study

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville wrapped up a year-long urban odor study in March.

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The project leader revealed the second half of the study failed to provide results. However, they say the study provided the city with proper predictions of where the odor was expected to move.

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“I was disappointed that the hardware didn’t operate better,” Environmental Protection Board Member, Adam Hoyles said. “I was intrigued and really impressed by the predictive software in terms of being able to predict where odors would travel based on weather, and temperature patterns.”

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Hoyles says the stink study was productive.

Through this year-long stink study, city staff says the software platform helped them predict an odor episode, which in turn allowed them to assign resources.

And despite the failure of the VOC sensors halfway through the study, city staff says it was a success.

“So I’m certainly hopeful that this contributes to a better air quality for the citizens of Jacksonville.

This all stemmed from complaints about a “vile sickening odor” in the Murray Hill community. Josh Geller filed about a half dozen complaints about it.

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“It smells like you are on the inside of a Pine-Sol bottle,” Geller said. “It’s a very clinical chemical agent, cleaning type smell, which anyone who’s used Pine-Sol would recognize.”

Action News Jax first reported about neighbor complaints and lawsuits aimed at International Flavors and Fragrances on Lane Avenue that date back years.

Since 2020, the city has received more than 4,000 complaints. This moved the city to take action. IFF received two citations, and since then, IFF, among a few other industries, have been working to solve the problems.

“What we’re starting to see is a lot of these industries being a little more proactive and taking actions and making proposals to the city to actually do something about these odor complaints,” Hoyles said.

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The final report is expected to be released to the public on Tuesday morning.

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