Can You Smell That Smell

[Betty]

Every day on my way home I drive through the 15 / 91 overpass (going south on the 15 to the west 91 - or I think it's south and west anyway.)

About 1/3 of the time there is a smell as I drive on the overpass. A bad smell you're thinking? No! That's what makes it odd actually.

Some days it smells like cookies. Other days it's bubblegum. There was a grape smell one day. There have been other pleasant smells as well but I'm not recalling them at the moment.

I refer to it as the scent factory. But I wonder - what in the heck is making those smells? Is there a cookie factory over there? That would explain the cookies but not the other smells so that can't be it. Besides, it would smell like cookies every day then, wouldn't it?

So - can anyone tell me - what in the heck makes it smell like that?

[katiesue]

No idea but the town I lived in when I was in Germany had a baby food factory. Chocolate and vanilla days were the best. Veggie days not so much.

[Alex]

Looking at Google Maps there is some commercial space in that interchange armpit with what looks like a small water treatment station (which can produce interesting odors, not always bad).

Unfortunately that is the only part of Corona not covered by Street View so I can't tell what businesses are in there.

[Gemini Cricket]

Maybe it's a Bernie Bots jelly bean factory. Beware of vomit flavor day!

[Mousey Girl]

I'll trade you smells. I get stuck with the rank odor of San Jauquin Refinery every time I am on the 99 (which is a couple times a week).

[Kevy Baby]

Before they tore it down a year or two ago, there was a Nabisco cookie factory in Buena Park (right off the I-5).

I had a customer who's office was on the back side of the plant. Not every time I visited, but often, the aroma was very distracting (good smell - not bad). We sometimes had to make a quick run to the corner story for a quick fix.


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Am I the only one now thinking of Lynyrd Skynyrd (http://www.lyricsdomain.com/12/lynyrd_skynyrd/that_smell.html)?

[Gn2Dlnd]

The 101S to the 5S interchange in downtown L.A. smells like vinegar salt potato chips.

Hansen's is in Corona, maybe they can different sodas on different days of the week.

[RStar]

Oh, sorry....

[CoasterMatt]

At least you aren't talking about this smell - Texas Town Faces Skunk Infestation (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_skunk_infestation)

[Morrigoon]

Could be worse... there's a landfill or something in Irvine and about 1 in 3 days the smell blows across the 5 fwy

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Maybe there's a flavor/scent additive factory nearby?

[Betty]

Maybe there's a flavor/scent additive factory nearby?

I wondered that myself. It's funny - now when I drive by I roll down the window a bit to smell if there's a smell today. I sometimes look around and wonder if other people notice it -they sure don't show it if they do.

[RStar]

Going down Valley View/Bolsa Chica in HB there is often a bad odor from one of several things.

1) Lots of skunks on the west side where the Armory land is, and they try to cross the road. Why do skunks try to cross the road? I don't know but they make smelly road kill!

2) There is a dranage ditch along the road, and things tend to rot down there.

3) HB use to be a swamp, and they filled in with dirt. This left a lot of organic matter rotting down below and pockets of rotten egg gas burst forth like a rancid fart.

Due to the constant bad odors in this area, you'd think property costs would take a nose dive. Yes, pun intended. I know I wouldn't live there!

[Not Afraid]

I miss the days when Irvine had strawberry fields and orange grove. At certain times of the year, my drive to work involved orange blossom and ripe strawberry scents.

[Betty]

I remember when they'd fertalize the fields it would all smell like poo too.

Corona used to be that way though - with the oranges. I would drive the kids to the sitter and we'd all roll down the windows as we passed the lonely little orange grove back in the hills.

They're all gone now though. They pulled them all up last year then ground them up into piles. It was cold out and the piles were hot from decomposing and you could see huge plumes of steam coming up from them.

But I love the smell of orange blossums. Does anyone know a perfume based on that smell?

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Before they tore it down a year or two ago, there was a Nabisco cookie factory in Buena Park (right off the I-5).

I had a customer who's office was on the back side of the plant. Not every time I visited, but often, the aroma was very distracting (good smell - not bad). We sometimes had to make a quick run to the corner story for a quick fix.


Yep, and that just so happens to be where they used to bake 'Nilla Wafers. I used to drool every time I drove past.

I love the smell of Nilla Wafer in the morning.

[Kevy Baby]

Corona used to be that way though - with the oranges.I am surprised that no one has mentioned driving on the 15 between the 60 and the 91 - through Chino/Ontario/Norco. I am not sure if it is still like this, but I remember driving through on a very warm summer night after a rare mid-summer rain. Even though I put the AC on "maximum" (so that it recycles the air in the car rather than drawing outside air in), the smell from all the dairy farms in the area made my eyes water.

That was some NASTY stench.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Corona used to be that way though - with the oranges. I would drive the kids to the sitter and we'd all roll down the windows as we passed the lonely little orange grove back in the hills.

They're all gone now though. They pulled them all up last year then ground them up into piles. It was cold out and the piles were hot from decomposing and you could see huge plumes of steam coming up from them.


This made me sad. I grew up in Corona in the sixties, there was an orange grove at the end of our street. Lots of orange and lemon groves everywhere. I think, because of this, orange blossoms are one of the things that set off my allergies. I remember on cold mornings, they would light "smudge pots" in the groves to keep the frost off the oranges. I suppose the people who watched empty land being turned into citrus groves felt sad about that, as well.

As for the vinegar/salt potato chip smell, last night, on the iPod, here comes Sandra Tsing Loh with her explanation of sodium acetate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_acetate)! Apparently, this is the stuff used to make that flavor. It also has all kinds of industrial uses, including as an additive to concrete, and the active ingredient in portable hand-warmers! So, Im thinking that at that fork in the freeway, there must be some company neutralizing a sulfuric acid waste stream. Mmm, vinegary!

[Mousey Girl]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned driving on the 15 between the 60 and the 91 - through Chino/Ontario/Norco. I am not sure if it is still like this, but I remember driving through on a very warm summer night after a rare mid-summer rain. Even though I put the AC on "maximum" (so that it recycles the air in the car rather than drawing outside air in), the smell from all the dairy farms in the area made my eyes water.

That was some NASTY stench.

I drove a friend home last night. I got a wiff of dairy. It brought back a lot of memories. Dairy smell doen't bother me, I grew up in dairy country (Hilmar). The only one that got to me was a verrrry stinky, nasty, pathetic dairy, that was located on the main road between Hilmar and Turlock. Even with the dairy down the street, and the turkey ranch behind our property, the only odors we really had to deal with came from one of the Gallo plants (which also brought us fruit flies), located in Livingston.

[Not Afraid]

Is that duck farm still off the 605? That was a stinky place. The smell was downright foul.

[Kevy Baby]

The smell was downright foul.And fowl.

[Betty]

So Friday afternoon the smell of the day was buttered popcorn-ish. Hmmm.

[BarTopDancer]

Jelly bean factory?

[Morrigoon]

BTD: good theory, I'll bet that's what it is!

[Morrigoon]

Is that duck farm still off the 605? That was a stinky place. The smell was downright foul.

That pun was a quack up, NA, a real feather in your cap.

(Oh god, I can't stand myself, the jokes only get worse from here!)

[RStar]

I remember when they'd fertalize the fields it would all smell like poo too.

Corona used to be that way though - with the oranges.

When I lived in Corona, it smelled of the chicken farms.

She said "Kiss me where it's hot and stinky!"

so he drove her to Corona......

[Kevy Baby]

She said to take that thing I play with and put it where it stinks. So I took my bowling ball to Corona.