This just in: Steel building does not smell.

Don't laugh. It's an important issue at stake along the banks of the Black Warrior River between Holt and downtown Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It’s usually late at night or in the early morning that a strong, noxious odor drifts along this region.

For years, rumors have swirled about the source of The Smell.

People who live and work in the vicinity have blamed some of the area industrial plants, include the steel mill owned by Nucor Corp., beside the river at the edge of the Holt community.

But Nucor isn’t taking that lying down, reports The Tuscaloosa News. Last week, it decided to clear the air by leasing a billboard next to the Paul W. Bryant Bridge just north of the mill, saying:

Smell something? It’s not us. Steelmaking is odorless, just like steel.

Randy Skagen, vice president and general manager of this steel building manufacturer, has not had many actual complaints about the smell, but he said he often finds himself discussing it with people who think it’s coming from Nucor.

He hit upon the idea for a billboard as an efficient way to address the assumption that the mill, which recycles about 700,000 tons of steel a year into steel coils and plates, is to blame.

“Anytime I come in contact with someone, I tell them that the odor is not ours," Skagen said. “People assume that the smell is from us because they see the steam that is coming from our plant, but it’s odorless."

Skagen moved to Tuscaloosa in 2004 when Nucor bought the steel mill from Corus Tuscaloosa. Since then, he has noticed, on occasion, what he described as an asphalt smell. But he wouldn’t say where he thought it was coming from.

The smell has been noticeable for years, according to residents.

“I actually noticed it yesterday morning," said Kevin Rowland, manager of Broadway Pizza on Rice Mine Road. “I smell it every now and then -- I never really knew where it came from, although I assumed it was Hunt Refinery."

Several other plants and industries are located in the area along the river, including Warrior Asphalt, Merichem and Southern Ionics.

The smell is most likely coming from Warrior Asphalt, said Ron Gore, head of the air division for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). Warrior stores liquid asphalt that is used in the road building and roofing industries.

ADEM determined that it would be economically unfeasible for Warrior to use the best odor-reducing technology. Plant officials are working with ADEM to do what they can to lessen the smell, Gore said, including using an odor-mitigation system to test their asphalt oxidizing systems.

“We do very extensive scrubbing, also known as filtering," Curtis Bale, general manager of Warrior Asphalt said. “We also have a pretty elaborate system to filter out these smells and use some chemicals that help break down the odors."

The odor could be a combination of the industries in the area that becomes more noticeable during specific atmospheric conditions - but it's important to reiterate again: One of the advantages to metal building is that the process itself is odor-free.