Frank Macri wistfully remembers when the fresh scent of pine would waft through his open windows at night. But for months now, the windows and door of his house have been kept tightly shut.

Macri and his wife, Ora Jacobucci, purchased air conditioners this summer because cooling down the house with evening breezes is no longer an option. The stench from the Northglenn Wastewater Treatment Facility makes leaving windows open unbearable.

If Macri and Jacobucci go to sleep with the windows open, the smell creeps into their house and wakes them up, dizzy with headaches and nausea. Macri said when he returns home from work and the odor is bad, he dashes from his car to the house.

"When the wind blows west to east, the smell hits us full wallop," Macri said.

The couple said the odor is like "being in an outhouse in 115 degree heat."

The couple lives along Weld County Road 2 in Brighton, on land that has been in the Jacobucci family for four generations. The family sold a portion of their land to Northglenn for the construction of the wastewater facility about 30 years ago.

From the beginning, Thornton was against the facility, and challenged Northglenn's annexation of the plant and the 300 acres surrounding it, which is eight miles outside of Northglenn city limits.

When the land was sold, Northglenn assured the Jacobuccis there would be no noxious odors, and until recently, the facility has never been a problem, Jacobucci said.

The noticeable odor from the facility started in late spring. Jacobucci and Macri have tried to get something done about the smell since then by contacting city and state officials.

The result has been months of empty promises, Macri said.

"It hasbeen so nice living here for so long, and to have that taken away, it's pretty devastating," Macri said. "We never expected a public facility to become a public nuisance."

The odors have also affected Thornton residents such as Tracey Vessels, who lives in the North Creek Farms subdivison.

Vessels has lived in the area for four years, and until the odors began she had no idea she lived near a wastewater treatment facility. She said she never would have purchased the house if she had known and is considering moving.

"The smell is absolutely unbearable. You can't go outside. You can't schedule events," Vessels said. "It permeates the entire inside of your house. It's just nasty."

Vessels said she has started keeping a "community stench log" of when the smell is strong and she said the rank odor is an almost daily occurrence.

"While I am hopeful that this situation will be resolved, I wanted to point out that I have a lack of confidence in the city of Northglenn's ability to address the problem," she said. "This comes from the their neglect which has created the problem in the first place. So far the measures that they have taken have not had any effective results."

The smell is also noticeable at the nearby Larkridge shopping center, Vessels said. While walking out of one of the stores recently, she said she noticed people wrinkling their noses and asking, "What is that smell?"

Visitors to the shopping center have complained to Robert Smith, business development director for the city of Thornton, vowing not to return.

Letters were sent to residents in the area letting them know of Northglenn's efforts to address the odor problem, wrote Mayor Kathie Novak in an in e-mail.

"This is an issue that we have been working on, although we have not had the kind of results we would like at this point," Novak wrote.

The Aug. 9 letters were sent to citizens living within a 1.5-mile radius of the facility detailing Northglenn's "Odor Control Plan." (Read the letter here)

David Allen, water and environmental services manager for Northglenn, said the odor complaints started in June 2006, when the city was performing maintenance and emergency repairs on the wastewater system. Bio-solids from a facility lagoon were removed and the city's sewer system was flushed. Settled organic matter in the system was disturbed, causing the smell.

To help with the odors, the city is flushing the system weekly to kill organisms and remove grit and debris and adding chemicals.

"Once temperatures get cooler, residents should see improvement," Allen said.

The pleas of Thornton residents to stop the smell has caught the attention of Thornton City Council, which has become involved in order to put pressure on Northglenn to fix the problem.

"I personally have talked with Mayor Novak about the issue and she has told me they are working to resolve the issue," Thornton Mayor Noel Busck said in an e-mail to YourHub.com. (Read Novak's letter to Busck here)

"This problem wasn't created in a day and it won't be solved in a day," he said.

Steve Zoet, Northglenn's interim city manager, said the city is working to solve the problem with the help of Thornton officials such as Gay as well as the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Air Pollution Control Division. (Read more about the agency's investigation here.)

"As difficult as it is to ask residents to be patient, there is no overnight fix," he said. "The reality is, with a wastewater treatment facility you are going to get odors. Our interest is to get it to a point where it is not so intrusive as to be unacceptable to residents."

A permanent odor control system is also being planned for Northglenn's wastewater treatment primary lift station, which sends all its water to the wastewater treatment facility.

____________________________________________________________

Read Frank Macri's letter here.

Read correspondence between officials and residents here.

Read more about Northglenn's plan to stop the stink here.

Read Northglenn resident Gene Weineke's blog entry about the odor here.