KXXV-TV News Channel 25 - Central Texas News and Weather for Waco, Temple, Killeen | Coca-Cola plant giving off 'sewage smell'

Coca-Cola plant giving off 'sewage smell'

by Henry Rosoff

WACO - Something smells funny at Kathy Sommerkamp's flower shop on Hewitt Drive. "It just stinks here," Sommerkamp said.  "It stinks like we have cows."

The "stink," she said, is coming from the Coca-Cola plant just up the street.  A spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the plant recently started pre-treating waste at the plant.

The TCEQ is investigating the plant and the pre-treatment process and would not elaborate on their investigation other than to recommend those like Sommerkamp file official complaints (see added link).

"We thought somebody had passed away and died in the field behind us," said Sommerkamp, who's also sharing her pain with the folks at Ace Hardware.

Ace is the plant's next door neighbor.  The smell is so bad outside there that an employee wrote "it's not us!" on the door.

"It stinks," said Ace customer David Swanson.  "It really smells bad, smells like a sewer that backed up somewhere."

A spokesman for Coca-Cola said the smell is typical for Coke plants that begin treating waste on site.  He said the smell dissipates with time.