LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Driving around, you may have noticed a strong odor overtaking several parts of the city.
"I noticed that it is stronger in other parts of Old Louisville than where I live now," Kimberly Monroe said.
Dan Ash said he noticed it last week, but he was in the south end.
Monroe said it's a smell that comes and goes but now it seems like she smells it more everyday.
"I've smelled it in my house before, like, woke up smelling it, thinking my dogs had an accident and they didn't," she said.
It's an odor that everyone is describing differently, yet very strong.
"It's really pungent, offensive chemical smell," Ash said.
WHAS11 took some of your questions to the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD).
MSD has received several odor complaints from different areas of town. In September, they have received more than 500 complaints about sewer odors. That is twice as many as they said they had in August, and up from just 77 in July.
They are focusing on specific neighborhoods, replacing old catch basins that are full of stinky water.
"The areas you mentioned, the south part, the southwest part, and the west part of our city, a lot of those lines are over two hundred years old," said Tony Parrott, executive director at MSD.
Although it's a shock to some, MSD is working hard to deodorize those areas once complaints are made. MSD said crews are now working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to address the odor.
"I didn't think it had anything to deal with the sewers to me it doesn't smell like the sewers it smells like something else," Ash said.
If you smell that strange odor in your home there's a possibility your traps in your sink or floor drains in your basement have dried out.
"We usually tell people to flush their floor drains, flush their sink traps so that liquid barrier can be in the trap to prevent the sewer gases from entering the home," Parrott said.
MSD is asking anyone who has smelled the odor to contact them at 540-6000.
They will assess the odor and determine what needs to be done from there.
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