‘What is up with the poop smell?’ People can’t handle the stink in this Missouri city

A smelly mystery has engulfed a Missouri city, and people can’t help but ask “what is up with the poop smell in Springfield?”

That’s the question Jenny Green took to Facebook to ask, and others are wondering the same.

“I smelled it about a week ago and it’s back today,” she continued. “ ... I smelled it downtown and at my house. Any ideas? And nope, it’s not on my shoe.”

Ruell Chappell posed a similar question.

“Man, what stinks in southern Springfield,” he asked. “It smells like someone is spreading manure. Smells like a farm. It shouldn’t smell like a farm.”

Springfield has a population of about 167,000 people in southwest Missouri, though its surrounded by many rural communities.

“WHAT. IS. THAT. SMELL. SPRINGFIELD,” Emily Letterman asked on Twitter. “It’s smells like a stable by our house.”

The smell is so bad that local media outlets sought out to solve what is behind the mysterious odor.

One station, KY3, says it drove across the city hoping to find where the smell might be coming from while talking with others about the smell. Similarly, KOLR spoke to people who said it smells like sewage or manure.

So, what’s behind the smell?

A spokesperson with the city of Springfield says fertilizer being spread nearby is the likely culprit, according to KY3.

And that wouldn’t be the first time the smell of manure stunk up Sprinfield.

In 2016, the Springfield News-Leader reported a “cow poop” type smell was filling the air of downtown.

“It’s like lots of manure; it’s lots of stink,” Brian Adams, air quality control coordinator for Springfield, told the newspaper at the time. He believed the smell to be agriculturally-related as weather carried the smell through the city.

If you’re unfamiliar with the smell of fertilizer, here’s a description from The Richlawn Company:

“Basically, fertilizer smells like horse or chicken manure when used on the farm, and depending on the amount of fertilizer you use, the odor can sometimes become difficult to bear.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 9:06 AM with the headline "‘What is up with the poop smell?’ People can’t handle the stink in this Missouri city."