[quote=jhan523;106948

I always thought it was just a crappy sewer system...[/quote]

Correct me, but it is my understanding that sewers are MEANT to be crappy? (or full of it anyway)

Originally Posted by madquarker

Correct me, but it is my understanding that sewers are MEANT to be crappy? (or full of it anyway)

probably; but a good sewer system is properly able to mask/hide away the smell?

On topic: I personally don't get the concept of "bad Hamilton air" or random smells because I come from one of the most polluted mega cities in the world! I've survived for over 18 years under over 5-10 times the accepted levels of air toxics/chemical agents as well as a complete lack of polluting laws/garbage recovery/workable sewer system!

So I guess its all relative? :S

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

On topic: I personally don't get the concept of "bad Hamilton air" or random smells because I come from one of the most polluted mega cities in the world! I've survived for over 18 years under over 5-10 times the accepted levels of air toxics/chemical agents as well as a complete lack of polluting laws/garbage recovery/workable sewer system!

So I guess its all relative? :S

I'll have to agree with you here. While I haven't experienced what you have in this regard, I still don't understand what people are talking about when they mention Hamilton's "bad air"... it's really not that bad. It's more typical (Canadian) city air.

It's probably to do with all the factories, people assume it'll be really bad because they're there and Hamilton is known for them, even though you haev factories all over the place.

Plus, there's making steel vs. making pens (or something else). You'd assume steel is much nastier to begin with, etc.

Yeah, I don't get it. I haven't been up there in the summer, but it can't be any worse than Toronto. The extra 1.4 million (roughly) people cancels the factories, I'd think.

I personally wasn't reffering to the air, I have no problem with that. I actually don't even notive a difference. It's just when passing by sewers at night, the smell coming out of them is kind of weird.

Originally Posted by jhan523

I personally wasn't reffering to the air, I have no problem with that. I actually don't even notive a difference. It's just when passing by sewers at night, the smell coming out of them is kind of weird.

I know what you're talking about... not sure why they smell like that (and other sewers in other cities don't), but when it's cold out you can see vapours coming out of the sewers here like in the movies or something.

Originally Posted by Taunton

I know what you're talking about... not sure why they smell like that (and other sewers in other cities don't), but when it's cold out you can see vapours coming out of the sewers here like in the movies or something.

I believe the vapours is common occurrence. It's like that in Toronto too, maybe because of fermentation? In any case, there are vapours in Toronto too but no smell. (Just incase you were trying to make a correlation, I wasn't quite sure).

Originally Posted by jhan523

I believe the vapours is common occurrence. It's like that in Toronto too, maybe because of fermentation? In any case, there are vapours in Toronto too but no smell. (Just incase you were trying to make a correlation, I wasn't quite sure).

Hamilton is the first time I've seen vapors like that... not trying to make a correlation per se, but I've lived in much colder cities (Ottawa, Montreal) and neither of those cities have steaming sewers in cold weather :p

Maybe they're insulation, on account of the weather? The Hamilton/Toronto sewers might not - it would be cheaper to put up with three or four days of..smoke(?) than insultaed the whole system.