Nampa’s sugarbeet factory has been just off I-84 for as long as I’ve lived in the Boise area–my whole life.
It’s pretty amazing that those ugly sugarbeets that come flying out of the bed of huge trucks this time of year are responsible for the pure white sugar that comes out of that building.
Especially considering the smell that you’re just not sure about as you approach the factory on your drive. Sometimes it smells like roasted peanuts and other times something is rotting and you try to drive by as fast as you possibly can.
As a kid, we would drive out to the Karcher Mall and we would have to pass the sugarbeet factory. My brother and I would plug our noses and ask mom when the smell was suitable for our noses again!
When developments started going up in that area, I wondered how those people would get used to living by the smell of sugarbeets processing into sugar. I suppose it’s no different than living by a dairy or any other industry that has an unpleasant odor associated with it!
The cool thing is, the Amalgamated Sugar Factory is installing an anaerobic digester facility to do some onsite processing of the wastewater generated from its sugar manufacturing, which they are hoping will really help when it comes to the unpleasant smell. They spent a lot of money and are working out all the details and are hoping that by spring, they will be able to have water treated in a new way, that doesn’t stink!!
