Created: 12/27/2005 4:14:17 PM 
By Melissa Ross First Coast News
YULEE, FL -- It smells like "rotting garbage," says Robert Urbanek of Yulee.
"It bothers me in the morning because I'd prefer the smell of coffee over that."
He's talking about the odor emanating from a 34-acre sludge site owned by the Rayonier Company. Rayonier uses the site to dump "sludge" from its timber processing facility in Fernandina Beach.
The wood fibers decompose and emit a foul odor, which residents say has been getting worse lately.
"We're concerned about it, and working to mitigate the odors," says Jack Perrett, GM of Rayonier in Fernandina Beach. He says recent rainy weather has hampered efforts to cover the sludge and reduce the odor.
Rayonier, he says, needs written permission from the Department of Environmental Protection to place charcoal over the site to lessen the smell.
The site will be closed permanently by 2008.
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