The cleanup of coal tar at the old Geneva Steel Mill is on hold, as Utah Department of Environmental Quality is giving the current owners time to regroup after neighbors complained about the nauseating smell.
Utah DEQ asked U.S. Steel on Friday to stop work on cleaning the coal tar pits until after the holidays, DEQ spokesman Jared Mendenhall said, and the company agreed.
DEQ received the first complaints of an odor coming from the Geneva site on Nov. 8. Residents in housing developments in nearby Lindon, Vineyard and Orem had complained the odor was causing nausea.