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What's that smell? Residents angered by foul odor hanging over Jacksonville

People in downtown Jacksonville had many different descriptions of the smell, but they could all agree the odor is bad.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Many people woke up to a foul odor Wednesday morning that could be smelt throughout the Jacksonville area. First Coast News is investigating what is being done to find the source.

People in downtown Jacksonville Wednesday morning had many different descriptions of the smell, but they could all agree the odor is bad.

“Earlier this morning, I did get a whiff of like some sewage," Ricky Boyce said. 

“Pretty foul odor, probably like some trash leftover," Dylan Pomares said. 

“A sewer smell," Sally Suslak said.

There are even more ideas on where the smell is coming from.

“Being a contractor and an architect myself, I know this smells like just chemical waste from the industrial company or something," Solomon Olopade said.

“I’ve smelt stuff on the Northside and it comes and goes, but I just assumed maybe that was the fuel plants," Joshua Corder said.

“I thought it was actually the paper mill which is on the Northside," said Erik Dawkins, a financial expert said.

First Coast News reached out to some city entities to see if anyone knew the cause.

JEA representatives said JEA teams inspected a number of locations and determined there were not any issues at JEA facilities causing an odor in Jacksonville.

We reached out to the St. John’s riverkeeper to see if algal blooms could be behind the odor, but they said “Water temperatures are most likely too cool for … blooms.”

The City of Jacksonville says they have received over 30 reports from multiple different zip codes about the smell. While the city has not identified a source at this time, they say an inspector with the city’s environment quality division is investigating.

The weather could also be playing a role in keeping that smell lingering in the area Meteorologist Tim Deegan explained.

"We call it mixing that is whatever's down low near us, even pollutants or what we smell, during the afternoon lifts up. So during the winter the longer night, the colder morning temperatures, whatever we're smelling, and sometimes we don't smell it, it might just be pollutants that's way down where we are."

First Coast News will continue investigating the source of the smell and keep you updated.

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