08/08/2025

Is Pasadena Really That Smelly? What’s Behind its Stink, And What Locals Say Is Causing it

Houston Chronicle | Jhair Romero | July 25, 2025

Is Pasadena really that smelly? What’s behind its stink, and what locals say is causing it

A nickname like “Stinkadena” doesn’t come from nowhere.

Whether you’re a Houston native or a Newstonian, chances are someone has mentioned to you how bad Pasadena — the second-largest city in the Houston metro area, with 150,000 residents and a hub for the local petrochemical industry — smells. 

But what’s behind Pasadena’s bad rap, and is it even deserved? I spoke to Pat Gonzales, a Pasadena resident and longtime community activist who’s vocal about the area’s industrial emissions and air quality issues, to learn more.

Why does Pasadena have that ‘stinky’ reputation?

Pasadena and its eastern neighbors are home to big petrochemical plants and refineries, especially right along the Houston Ship Channel. 

For decades, wind has carried sulfurous or oily odors from those facilities into nearby neighborhoods, cementing the city’s reputation for occasional industrial smells. Most of the time, people who smell Pasadena describe a rotten‑egg type odor. It's the kind of nasal assault that produces a scowl and has you rushing to roll your car windows up whenever you drive through Pasadena.

Gonzales, a native of southeast Houston, has lived in Pasadena for about 20 years, having moved there to give her kids access to better schools. She noticed the odor soon after arriving and has since founded her nonprofit, Caring for Pasadena Communities, to advocate against local pollution. 

“The smell is kind of constant,” said Gonzales. “I’ve been here so long that I got used to it.”

In short, Pasadena’s reputation is primarily shaped by its industrial past and present, as well as the nearby refineries, which frequently release odors that waft into homes under certain conditions. 

What’s really behind the smell?

The rotten egg odor is usually hydrogen sulfide, which is produced during the refining process when sulfur is stripped from crude oil. Even small leaks or venting can send the smell into surrounding neighborhoods.

In October 2024, a major hydrogen sulfide release at the Pemex Deer Park refinery killed two contract workers and exposed dozens more. It caused a rotten‑egg smell that residents reported far beyond the plant walls, leading officials to issue shelter-in-place orders over Pasadena and Deer Park 

“It was really hard for people because they started having runny noses, itchy throats, headaches, nausea and sometimes vomiting,” Gonzales said. “It was a real pungent smell that affected Pasadena.”

So while official readings may stay within health limits most days, when leaks or flaring happen, smells of sulfur and hydrocarbons are the likely culprits. For locals, the stink is hard to ignore.

Do people here actually smell it?

Absolutely. 

Although Gonzales said she’s gone nose blind to the stink of rotten eggs and industrial chemicals, she can gauge how bad the odors get whenever she has visitors.

“When you have someone come from out of town and they come in through the (Texas 225) corridor into Pasadena, they can smell it really bad,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Ugh, what’s that smell,’ and I have to explain the toxins, the particulate matter and things that are being released (by the refineries).”

Is Pasadena’s air quality any worse than the rest of Houston?

The short answer: not consistently, but the metro area all around has serious air pollution issues. Regionally, Houston-Pasadena ranks as one of the worst cities for air quality in the U.S. 

According to the 2025 American Lung Association report, the metro area ranks seventh-worst for high ozone days (the culprit here is mostly smog) and eighth-worst for year‑round particle pollution.

Ozone is formed when sunlight interacts with vehicle and industrial emissions. That’s especially bad on hot, stagnant summer days, which we have plenty of in Texas.

How can the steady stink affect residents’ health? Well, for one, it certainly isn’t pleasant on the olfactory nerves, but it can also cause headaches, nausea and even eye, nose and throat irritation. Particle pollution (tiny bits that can lodge deep in the lungs) is tied to long-term health risks like heart disease, stroke, asthma and low birth weight.

“This is making people sick,” Gonzales said. “They’re getting cancer, they have problems with their respiratory systems, blood pressure and things that affect them because of the toxicity that’s being released.”