Citizens for Safe Water and Air Port Townsend

File an Odor Report to the Department of Ecology

Every report you file becomes part of the community record we use to hold Port Townsend Paper Company and regulators accountable.

File your report as close to the time of the odor as possible. Details fade fast, and a timestamp close to the event carries more weight.

File a new report every time you notice an odor, even if that means filing one every day. A pattern of daily reports is itself important evidence.

Be as specific as you can. For example, a street address, cross streets, or a landmark.
“I am noticing that many people are putting ‘Port Townsend’ or ‘Port Hadlock’ as the location of the odor. Unfortunately, these locations are too general for me to do a thorough investigation. Normally, I would reach out to the complainant to narrow down a location, but most of the people using general city names are not including a contact email.”
— Mady Lyon, P.E., Washington State Department of Ecology (Sept. 8, 2026)
This report is being filed about Port Townsend Paper Company (PTPC). Naming what the odor actually smells like — rotten eggs, cabbage, garlic — helps Ecology connect it to a specific stage of the mill's process.
Not sure how to describe it? See what PTPC's mill odor usually smells like
Decorative — see the labeled list below for the compounds and figures this illustration represents.

Kraft pulp mills like PTPC release a specific, well-documented set of sulfur compounds. Each has its own characteristic smell — using one of these words can help Ecology recognize the pattern. The figures below come from a 2018 community air-monitoring study near PTPC, run by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR):

Hydrogen sulfideH₂Srotten eggs
Measured up to 490 ppb — about 980× its 0.5 ppb odor threshold.
Dimethyl disulfide(CH₃S)₂garlic-like
Measured up to 4,390 ppb — about 627× its 7 ppb odor threshold.
Dimethyl sulfide(CH₃)₂Scabbage-like, sulfurous
Measured up to 444 ppb — about 444× its 1 ppb odor threshold.
Methyl mercaptanCH₃SHrotten cabbage or garlic
Measured up to 34.5 ppb — about 16× its 2.1 ppb odor threshold.
Sulfur dioxideSO₂sharp, struck-match
Peaked at 739 ppb on one instrument (about 1.6× its 470 ppb threshold); a steadier instrument's readings stayed below threshold.

Important: at higher, more dangerous concentrations, your nose can stop being able to smell hydrogen sulfide at all within minutes — a smell that suddenly fades during a strong exposure does not mean the air is safe. If you're feeling symptoms, treat it seriously even if the odor seems to lessen.

PTPC's reported hydrogen sulfide releases — 2023
31,925 lbs
To air and water combined (no land-disposal pathway was reported for this chemical). Source: EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Envirofacts, Reporting Year 2023 (most recent complete year on file).
Sources and methodology
Compounds above are ordered by how far each one's peak measurement exceeded its own smell threshold, not by how much PTPC releases — a release quantity like the hydrogen sulfide figure above only exists for that one compound. Concentrations: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Health Consultation: Exposure Investigation — Outdoor Air Exposures from the Port Townsend Paper Corporation (June 24, 2024), reporting a 10-week community monitoring study, Aug–Nov 2018. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) notes the instrument behind the largest hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide readings is less reliable for those two compounds specifically, so those two peak figures should be read as occasional spikes rather than typical levels. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) concluded that each compound individually is unlikely to cause harm at these levels, but the mix — which occurs together often — can cause occasional acute respiratory effects, and all five were tied to community odor complaints. Release figure: EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Envirofacts, Reporting Year 2023. Odor thresholds and additional background: ATSDR (hydrogen sulfide), ATSDR (methyl mercaptan), ATSDR (sulfur dioxide).
Ecology will not receive your name or email address.
If you're comfortable sharing your name and email, it gives Ecology a way to follow up with questions, which can help your report carry more weight. Anonymous reports are still taken seriously and are still added to the official record. This is entirely your choice.
If you'd like us to follow up with you about your report, leave your email. Not required.
Where this report goes: your submission is sent to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the agency that regulates air quality here, and is kept as part of the shared community record by both Citizens for Safe Water and Air - Port Townsend and the ptodor.org project. Because Ecology receives it as an official complaint, it becomes a public record, and Ecology can release it in response to a public records request. If you choose to remain anonymous above, your name and email are never sent to us or to Ecology in the first place, so there is nothing identifying for Ecology to release. If you provide your email and do not choose to remain anonymous, you will also receive a confirmation email with a copy of what you submitted, and Ecology will have your email if they need to follow up.