People who live in Fairfield are hoping to be able to breathe cleaner air this spring. It comes as the Water Pollution Control Authority says that there has been an unusual stench in the air since late September due to a broken part at the wastewater treatment facility.

“It sort of smells like an outhouse,” says Ray Poincelot.

Poincelot has lived in Fairfield for more than 30 years. He says he has been dealing with the smell for months.

“It started out as very bad. I would go to walk the dog and it was like ‘Eww.’ Really, really bad and it stayed that way,” he says.

John Bodie, superintendent of the Water Pollution Control Authority says people are smelling raw sewage. He says the cleaning processor broke. It's called a primary digestor and it helps to break down the sewage while reducing odor.

“Without the primary digester, the destruction of solids doesn't happen – so we're processing raw sludge and wasted activated sludge,” Bodie says. “We suspect…that the plug that the sludge leaves from plugged off."

Bodie says they got two bids for the repair, and they will accept the $1.4 million bid. The money will come out of the Water Pollution Control Authority Fund.

“We’re almost there. Just bear with us a little while longer,” Bodie says.