On opening night at Riverbend I smelled sewer gas during most of the evening. One person told me that it came from Moccasin Bend Treatment Plant and that when the wind was blowing from that direction you could always smell it at Lookout games.
Something must be wrong at the treatment plant if he was correct. Who operates the plant? It certainly needs fixing.
Don Loftis
DonLoftis@aol.com
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Why, way back around 1984 when the Moccasin Bend Task Force (or was it Task Farce) was laying the groundwork for what would become Chattanooga's "riverfront revitalization," I think it was Jim Bowen in one of their meetings who coined a phrase which will live in infamy. In response to one of the scatterbrained capitalist schemes for the further overdevelopment of the Bend which included a marina and housing complex, Jim said something to the effect that "we could call it housing for the nasally impaired."
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
At least now the town's water intakes are located upstream from its sewage outfall pipes, which wasn't the case when the Union Army Engineers and their U.S. Colored Troop conscripts built the first city water works on Cameron Hill in 1864. Of late, this has led to the coining of other catch phrases such as: "Flush a toilet, South Pittsburg needs the water" and "We all live downstream."
Just as the East River in New York contributes to that city's unique ambiance, our treatment plant often gives Chattanoogans something to reflect upon. And I think that's good. It reminds us of the admonishment that “If you continue to foul your nest, one day you will suffocate in your own waste."
Bruce Wilkey
Signal Mountain
bwilkey@bellsouth.net
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I’ve been a season ticket holder at Bell South Park since day one and have never smelled sewer gas at the park.
J. Hixson
lasutc@yahoo.com