Something stinks at City Hall.

Joke away about the matter but the smell has become an issue  for the Department of Public Works. City officials believe the odor problems are a combination of Dean Foods with the city’s Northview Road pump station’s force main.

Dean Foods has planned two capital projects in 2011 that should help with the stench, said Tim Young, the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant pretreatment coordinator, told the Board of Pubic Works on Thursday.

 “Unfortunately there is another spring and summer season coming up where they have an odor issue,” Young said. “Not that it is just their fault either. We realize a component of it is the Northview pump station force main that intersects in about the same point in the sewer.”

The dairy processing plant already has completed the first phase of its projects by capturing its high-strength milk products and shipping to an area farm for animal feed, Young said.

“Their goal is to reduce their effluent concentration to below surcharge thresholds by the end of 2011,” Young wrote in a memo to the Board of Public Works.

The projects aren’t slated until the second and third quarter of 2011, though, and the smell could remain. The city is exploring options for temporary odor control for this year, Young said.

The City Hall stench spreads beyond the government properties. Alderman Joe Pieper, whose district includes areas along Delafield Street, commented generally before the meeting that his residents have previously mentioned the smell.

The question remains – will the smell go away with the planned projects? The city will review the “odor contributions” from Dean Foods and the Northview pump station after the Dean Foods projects are completed and develop a strategy to fight the stink with the help of a consultant, Young said in his memo.

The city will place a data-gathering tool in the sewer system to pinpoint the source of the smell. It also is looking at carbon-absorption devices to stop the odor before it gets out into open air.

“The cost is relatively low, but it is something that can be done,” Young said during the meeting.