PORT TOWNSEND — Alice McConaughy and Kristin Marshall stood Wednesday on the edge of Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s secondary treatment pond, long the brunt of jokes that compared its odor to a bodily function.

One thing was conspicuously missing as a stiff westerly breeze blew off the mill pond’s bubbling surface and squarely into their faces:

Only a faint odor at ground zero.

It was nothing like the overwhelming stench that has many residents of Port Townsend and East Jefferson County complaining that the odor causes nausea, headaches, even vomiting.

Some residents were so moved that they held a public meeting in the Port Townsend Community Center the night before.

But at the landmark paper mill just south of town, employees such as Environmental Project Manager McConaughy and Environmental Manager Marshall are counting the days — 18 as of today — without odor complaints from county residents.

This since a $3.5 million project between August and March 20 upgraded the pond’s aeration system.

Immediate improvement

“When we turned it on we immediately noticed an improvement. We’ve been really excited with what has happened,” said McConaughy, smiling as she detailed the project.

She and Marshall agree that the rising mill pond odor during the past several months probably came as a result of the project, which required emptying, dredging and re-plumbing the more than 30-acre pond with the new aeration system.

The system controls pollution with 1,500 tubes about five feet along at the bottom of the treatment pond.

Oxygen generated by the system’s bubbling action assists bacteria — or “bugs” as they are fondly called — in eating harmful pollutants.