The stench at Ga. 53 near Bells Ferry Road due to an odor from the sewer line has greatly subsided in the past year thanks to a chemical compound similar to Milk of Magnesia.

But city of Rome officials may be looking at a cheaper solution to keep the smell away.

At the City of Rome’s Water and Sewer meeting on Tuesday morning, officials said they may look at low-cost changes.

Complaints about odors started years ago after the Galey & Lord and Florida Tile plants closed and the water-flow in the pipes decreased. 

Several solutions were tried before the city hit on the addition of a chemical equivalent to Milk of Magnesia that appears to have resolved the issue at a cost of $35,000 a year.

Water and Sewer Director Leigh Ross said two of the cheaper solutions include supplementing flow with caustic soda or using an air scrubber, which treats the air coming out of a manhole.

In other business, plans to replace sewer mains near the old General Electric plant in West Rome that have shown low PCB concentrations are under way.

The GE medium transformer plant closed in the late 1980s, but the company is still cleaning up toxic polychlorinated biphenyls that were used in the manufacturing process. These are the last lines that will have to be replaced, Ross said.

The sewer mains are near Woodbine Avenue and behind Brookwood Avenue. General Electric is paying $188,000, which is expected to cover the entire cost, Ross said.

Plans are expected to be drawn up in March. The project will take about 120 days, according to Ross.

Also at the meeting, it was announced that the city’s water quality scored a 92.7 during a recent audit by the Environmental Protection Division.

The EPD surveys every three years, Ross said.

“Anything above a 90 is called an outstanding performance,” Ross said.