Air Pollution from the Tropicana Plant over 10 miles away...

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
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Jul 19, 2001
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So we've lived in our townhouse on the Sarasota/Bradenton, FL line for almost 2 years now.... We really like it here, beautiful city, friendly people, lots of things to do... anyway

Bradenton is home to Tropicana, roughly 10-12 miles from our house (Link to see Distance).

Now, down by the factory, its always smelled like a strong acidic orange scent, almost metallic, kind of hard to describe. Its not like the normal orange (i.e. orange juice smell) your used to, it smells like a chemical orange, to the point it it makes you nauseous if its anything more than even a faint smell.

So, for the past 2 years, the smell has only really been around the plant, and maybe 1/2-1 mile around it.

Well starting around the beginning of April, we were outside our house one day and noticed the smell, faint, but it was there. Strong northwest wind i thought, it will go away... Well it hasn't, nearly every day since April the smell has gotten stronger, to the point now (this evening) we came home from dinner and as soon as we got out of the car, it was so pungent, i almost gagged. This SUCKS.

I'm thinking of calling up my environmental law prof. and see what options he things we might have. I know i'm not the only one bothered by this, all the neighbors have been complaining as well. They obviously changed something at the plant, in the 2 years we've lived here, we never even smelled a hint of it till this April...

Anyone ever dealt with something along these lines before?

I know in the grand scheme of things, companies have done considerably worse things to the area, but to us (and our neighbors, and i imagine all the people in this 10+ mile radius now) it sucks to even go outside or have your windows open.
 

kogase

Diamond Member
Sep 8, 2004
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Maybe they switched from American workers to Mexicans. Don't Mexicans have much worse body odor? That's the only thing I could come up with, how bad could orange juice production smell?
 

Heisenberg

Lifer
Dec 21, 2001
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Have you contacted the plant to see what they say? Maybe get everybody in the neighborhood to sign a petition/complaint and give it to them.
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
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Jul 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Have you contacted the plant to see what they say? Maybe get everybody in the neighborhood to sign a petition/complaint and give it to them.

Not yet, we have a HOA meeting in a week or so, definately going to bring it up.
 

Nebor

Lifer
Jun 24, 2003
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When you say "We" you don't mean a wife\fiance\girlfriend, do you?
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
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Jul 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: Nebor
When you say "We" you don't mean a wife\fiance\girlfriend, do you?

eh yes, fiancee, why?
 

Coquito

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Nov 30, 2003
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I watched something on the "natural flavors" in alot of our food. Chemicals that smell exactly like the ingredients, foods that we would expect, but they're all just mix & match chemicals. They're allowed to label them just "natural flavors" because of the process used to create them. I haven't eaten much lately. :(