San Francisco residents complain of foul odor coming from Anchor brewery

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Complaints are brewing over a foul odor coming from the Anchor brewery in San Francisco.

People living near the brewery located on Mariposa Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood, say they first noticed the stench earlier this week.

“We’ve just been referring to it as the bad breath smell,” said Sara Alfageeh, a San Francisco resident who often plays pickleball at a park across from the Anchor Brewing Company.

“It comes in whiffs and waves and it’s just a very strong, pungent odor, you know – it’s not pleasant,” added Shaharyar Anjum.

Sapporo sold the beloved brewery in May and it’s now gearing up to reopen.

MORE: San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing to be purchased by billionaire behind Chobani yogurt

“We definitely noticed a really awful pungent smell about two weeks ago,” explained Alfageeh.

From pickleball players to people coming out of a preschool down the block, there were plenty of complaints on the streets.

“The whole two or three-block radius smells like poop all the time,” said Ben Mann, who was picking up his daughter from preschool. “As soon as I get out of the car, it’s just over whelming, you can’t miss it – in fact I just saw someone get out their car over there and they said ‘ew it smells like poop.”‘

The smell is apparently coming from old wastewater treatment tanks used in Anchor’s brewing process.

A spokesperson for the brewery’s new owner told the San Francisco Chronicle that the tanks weren’t decommissioned properly, so they’ve now brought in crews to demolish the tanks.

Everyone from residents to runners, to dog walkers are starting to lose patience.

“It kind of smells like manure, it definitely smells like picking up horse poop which I’ve done before,” said Chris Castro, adding that sometimes he tries to avoid the area. “Unfortunately, I don’t always have that option, but yeah I’ll try to avoid the park here.”

Meanwhile, efforts to get the place cleaned up continue. There is no word on when the smell is expected to fade away.