People are always talking about the shit hitting the fan, but this time it’s the other way around. A sewage treatment plant in West Lafayette, Indiana is kicking up a noxious stench as it is undergoing renovations, not exactly the most appetizing atmosphere for the Taste of Tippecanoe food festival last weekend. David Henderson (pictured above), the guy in charge of the utility, had an idea. He brought in a $1789 Aquafog odor control device to mask that smell just in time for the festival to begin.

Especially made for municipal odor control, the Aquafog ORSM combines ultra-fine atomization with an enormously powerful fan to knock down even the most powerful aromas. Henderson mixed in a vanilla scent, and tells DVICE it worked beautifully, saving the eager eaters from the smell of raw sewage as they chowed down with an assortment of gourmet delights. “It worked,” he told DVICE. He was downwind from the plant, too. “I did catch a whiff of vanilla, so the wind was blowing toward us,” he said.

Henderson says he also put odor-control chemicals into the plant’s lagoon, but he added that it’ll be December before the new sewage “digesters” are back online. Until then, he says the stench problem is under control, and he’s firing up that Aquafog “as needed.”

Jaybird, via The Indy Channel