Smelly Pond Water Turning Off Visitors To Turlock Park
TURLOCK (CBS13) - It looks beautiful, but how this pristine-looking pond smells is another story.
The pond in rural Stanislaus County has been stinking up the neighborhood, and now Turlock city officials have a surprising way to deal with the stench.
The pond is its prime attraction of Donnelly Park, which is nestled away in a quaint little Turlock neighborhood. But lately a strong stench has been keeping people away.
"It's horrible," resident Penny Beecher said.
"It just smells like dirty water," Suzanne Valenzuela said.
So what's the stinky odor? The city says it's dead fish, and it all started after the hot weather and a recent algae bloom. They've received several complaints.
"It smells like you are on a farm, and you are in a park and you shouldn't have that smell all the time," Theresa Perez said.
In just the last week the city has dumped 10 million gallons of drinking water and runoff water into the pond to get rid of the smell.
And the city has been removing the dead fish, hoping the combined effort will eliminate the foul odor.
But some aren't convinced of the city's plan to use drinking water to eliminate the stench..
"I think it's a waste of drinking water," Perez said. "They should probably be able to find other resources to get water in there."
"We need the drinking water for drinking, but then we also need to take care of the smell so people can enjoy the park more," Beecher said.
The city says in years past they have had a problem with the smell and they've used drinking water before to make the stench go away.
And it appears to be dissipating the stench again this year.
"It's a good thing," a park visitor said Tuesday.
