CLEVELAND -- Health and air quality officials say they've been inundated with complaints about a new odor wafting through downtown Cleveland, NewsChannel5 reported.

The odor has been especially strong near Interstate 77 and Pershing Avenue.

It's an odor so foul that the health department is getting dozens of complaints night and day, NewsChannel5 reported.

"Never have we smelled this kind of stuff," said Tremont resident Guy Templeton Black. "It's a mean smell."

The Cleveland Health Department has gotten so many complaints they used an instrument called a scentometer, which measures elevated odor levels. It tracked the smell to a factory in the industrial flats.

General Enivronmental Management processes industrial waste water.

"We did readings on this particular odor and found it exceeded standards by law and (we're) trying to get it addressed," Cleveland Health Director Matt Carroll said.

Officials sent a letter to the company giving them 30 days to correct the odor.

The company's owner denies the factory is the source. He told NewsChannel5 that he believes he knows the source and will respond by letter to health officials Wednesday or Thursday.