What’s that ‘bad smell’ in Jacksonville? Action News Jax investigates

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Something foul was wafting in the air in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

“Like rotten eggs. It’s pretty bad,” local resident Alina Moroz said.

“I’ve been smelling kind of like a sewage smell, kind of like rotten fish,” local resident Khalid Smith said.

Although no one seems to be able to quite identify the odor, they can agree it’s pungent.

“When I went into my office building even with masks on we have to wear you can still smell it, really strong,” another resident said.

While our initial investigation took us to the riverside area, we asked the city about any bad odor complaints it received on Wednesday. We learned the city received at least 30 such complaints.

The reports come from Riverside to Downtown to Springfield and beyond.

The city told us the reports came from the following zip codes:

32202

32205

32206

32207

32208

32210

32216

32217

32244

In the last 24 hours, JFRD said it dispatched four investigative assignments over bad odor reports.

Officials say crews were dispatched to the city’s Mandarin, Downtown, Moncrief and Brooklyn sections.

Jacksonville isn’t a stranger to foul smells hanging in the air, but some people said this is different.

“This is worse. Yeah,” Moroz said.

JEA responded to our questions with this statement:

“JEA teams inspected a number of locations downtown and in the University area and have determined there were not any issues at JEA facilities causing an odor in Jacksonville.”

Action News Jax first told you last month residents reported a vile odor in the Murray Hill neighborhood.

Neighbors told us they believed the smell was coming from the International Flavors & Fragrances Factory.

This time around, the city said it doesn’t have a source for the smell.

Officials said an inspector with the environment quality division is also investigating.

This smell problem extends beyond Duval, after we first reported on it at noon, we received several emails from viewers in Clay County and St. Johns County experiencing the same smelly problem.

JFRD officials also said they could not pinpoint where the smell was coming from.

We also heard from several folks who said they had not smelled a thing.

This odor seems to be hitting certain neighborhoods at certain times.

We’ll be checking back in with the city to find out what the inspector finds.

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