It Came from New Jersey

City's mysterious stink is link to N.J. culprit

Tuesday, January 09, 2007
By TIM VASSILAKOS STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

It sure wasn't maple syrup.
A puzzling gas-like odor wafted over a large swath of Manhattan and was detected on parts of the North Shore and New Jersey yesterday, prompting a citywide guessing game and a deluge of calls to 911.
By late last night, the smell police were sniffing around New Jersey.
"We think it emanates somewhere between Secaucus and Jersey City," said Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection.
Islanders began reporting the foreign smell at about 8:45 a.m. By 11 a.m., federal officials were ruling out the possibility of terrorism.
"I was coming through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and I heard Howard Stern [on Sirius satellite radio] talk about how he was evacuating his building, so I rolled down my window and I get hit in the face with this potent smell of gas," said Sean Sweeney of West Brighton. "The odor just kept getting stronger and stronger as I drove up the West Side -- but, you know, I figured, 'Hey, it's just New York, it's just another odor.'"
But not one as pleasant as the mysterious maple-syrup-like fragrance that enveloped the city in the fall and winter of 2005.
Rather, it seemed to resemble the mysterious noxious cloud that descended on the North Shore last Aug. 15.
At a news conference yesterday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the smell may have been that of mercaptan, a sulfurous compound added to natural gas, but added there was no indication the air was unsafe to breathe. "We don't know what it is. It does not appear to be dangerous. ... It may just be an unpleasant smell," he said. "The one thing we are very confident of is that it's not dangerous."
Bloomberg noted that there had been a small gas leak at Bleecker and West Sixth streets, but that it wasn't enough to account for the pervasive odor. By noontime, city officials had reported 500 calls placed to 911.
The smell itself created an unpleasant day for Islanders who had to travel or spend hours outside.
"With my job, I have to be outside most of the day, and this made the terrible weather even worse," said Dan Chanod of Stapleton, who's spending his break between college semesters hawking tickets for a Manhattan comedy club. "I get into the city and I'm, like, 'Oh great, it's cloudy, it's raining, but to make matters worse it smells like gas and I have a massive headache."
TRAINS DISRUPTED
Fire Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said 12 people were taken to hospitals with minor odor-related complaints such as irritation and difficulty breathing.
The smell caused some commuting problems. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suspended PATH train service for about an hour between New Jersey and 33rd Street in Manhattan.
"I was already running late for a meeting I had in New Jersey and then I found out the train was closed -- so I was left with the options of canceling or being inexcusably late, none of which are good," said Walter King of Stapleton. "So, yeah, I would say my day was a little inconvenienced, between that and my headache from the smell."
For some Islanders, the odor brought back some unwanted memories.
"I actually was in my building at the time they announced there was a smell of gas, but I heard a lot of commotion from my co-workers, especially the ones who traveled in from New Jersey," said Carol Rodney of Clifton, a 9/11 survivor. "Being a World Trade Center [Tower 1] survivor made today that much worse, because all it did was take me back to that day, and remind me of how I felt."
But federal officials sought to allay any concerns. "It is still early but there is not indication of terrorism and there is no credible intelligence to suggest any imminent threat to the homeland or to New York at this time," said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the federal Department of Homeland Security.
He said the agency was closely monitoring the situation and talking with local authorities, who customarily take the lead.
Businesses and schools made an effort to update people throughout the day.
SAFETY CONCERNS
"I got to school in the morning and they had told us there was a gas leak," said Daniel Tomai of Sunnyside, who attends Xavier High School in Manhattan. "They told us it would be safer in the school as opposed to outside, and they updated us each time the mayor spoke, or if something was figured out -- overall, the scene was generally calm, it wasn't really a disturbance."
In true New York fashion, most Islanders went about their business unfazed.
"I smelled it a bit, but I didn't think much of it. I smell gas all the time near my house, I'm not going to get all exited about this," said Dominic Gaspari of Annadale. "All these people are so warped into being scared, but there's much more in life to be scared about then a little smell -- but on the other hand, my girlfriend, yeah, she was freaking out a little."

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