OXNARD : $91,100 System OKd to Cut Sewage Odor

To avoid raising a stink with nearby Port Hueneme residents, the Oxnard City Council has moved to spend $91,100 on an odor control system for a sewage pump station on Port Hueneme Road near Surfside Drive.

The council voted unanimously last week to spend the funds on a odor filtration system for the station, which is along the city’s boundary next to a condominium development in Port Hueneme.

The station, one of 20 in the city, has a pump capacity of 12 million gallons a day and is used to pump sewage to the Oxnard Waterwaste Treatment Plant on Perkins Road.

Odor from the pump station has prompted about eight complaints in the last year from residents in the nearby condominiums, said Mark Norris, the city’s waste water division superintendent.

Regular off-shore breezes usually dissipate the odor from the station, but Norris said the odor is more noticeable during summer months.

Norris said he expects the odor control system to be installed by August. He said no other sewage pump station in the city has an odor control system.

“I’m glad they are going to spend some money to do it,” said Alan Fox, manager of the Surfside Motel, which is across the street from the pump station.

Fox said some of his guests have complained to him about odor from the station. “I know that during the summer some people keep their windows closed and turn on their fans,” he said.

One Port Hueneme resident who lives less than 100 feet from the pump station said she has never complained to the city about the pump station but has noticed the odor.

“Well, it’s not pleasant,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “Even my son will say ‘Oh mom, that stuff is gross,’ ” she said.