City officials had hoped that eliminating the rubber and asphalt mixture on site would dispense with acrid odors and keep the peace between downtown residents and proponents of current industrial operations at the port.
Ken Ford, director of downtown's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, said it doesn't matter how the asphalt operation is packaged; it still stinks.
"My biggest issue is the smell," Ford said. "It's hard to sit on your porch."
Routine activities such as moving asphalt from barges to tanks to trucks also create odors, said Tony Martinez, environmental officer for Houston-based Trigeant EP Ltd., which recently purchased the asphalt operation. Even changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure can cause the tanks to release odors.
The company has committed to installing an odor-control system by April 1, he said.
Ford said downtown residents and businesses are hit on both sides, with odors from the Main Street Wastewater Treatment Plant and the asphalt tanks, depending on the direction of the wind.
Downtown resident and tourism promoter Nancy Halford agreed that the smell lingers. She had lunch at a downtown restaurant recently and was put off by the odor.
"It was really quite heavy," she said. "The smell, quite frankly, is worse than the sewer plant."
A task force of city residents, environmental regulators and representatives from Trigeant continues to look into ways to stop the smell.
The task force so far has toured the facility - and has not scheduled a second meeting, said Kevin Cowper, the city's community development director.
"It depends on how long it takes this focus group to research this issue and come up with some conclusions, but I would expect in a couple of months we should have some recommendations," Cowper said.
Mixing asphalt and rubber was blamed initially for the odors.
The task force is looking into whether a thermal oxidizer, which would burn emissions from the plant in an effort to reduce odors, would work.
Trigeant agreed to install the oxidizer, if needed, to head off a planned city lawsuit against former owners Coastal Fuels Marketing.
Asphalt is continually brought to the site on barges, loaded into tanks and shipped out on trucks.
Cowper said the odors have been reduced, but no decision has been made on an oxidizer.
"Some of the feedback I've had is that there is still some level of odor, that the frequency and the strength of the odor is noticeably reduced," he said.
Residents also are concerned that an oxidizer will emit contaminants into the air, and the city is working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to make sure there are no harmful side effects.
Some of the potential emissions from the thermal oxidizer include an undetermined amount of dioxins and Trigeant's estimates of 2 tons per year of nitrogen oxides, 1.8 tons per year of carbon dioxide, 2.6 pounds per year of sulfur dioxide, 80 pounds per year of dust and 240 pounds per year of volatile organic compounds.
DEP spokeswoman Sally Cooey said that once her agency receives a permit application from Trigeant for the odor-control system, the deparment will evaulate any proposed methods to determine whether they are effective and environmentally sound.
The smells became a problem when the operation was owned by Coastal Fuels, but new owner Trigeant is working with the city to reduce odors. Trigeant's lease runs through July 8, 2008. Coastal assumed a 20-year lease from Belcher Oil Co. in 1988.
"We'll try to determine whether that is the right solution," Cowper said. "We'll also look at other methods and techniques."
Trigeant has agreed that its lease can be terminated with a two-year notice. Pensacola (Florida) News Journal