Rotten-egg smell that had pervaded the region Monday appears to have largely dissipated.
/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: Sept. 11, 2012 Updated: 12:58 p.m.
SANTA ANA – Regional air quality managers in Southern California are awaiting an analysis of air samples as they try to determine the source of a foul, rotten-egg odor that invaded the region Monday.
The rotten-egg smell appears to have largely dissipated Tuesday.The South Coast Air Quality Management District took the samples late Monday in the Coachella Valley and near the Salton Sea, a massive saltwater lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles that could be the culprit.
They also took samples in locations farther from the sea and across the region.
Officials received 200 complaints about the pungent aroma. The complaints came from across much of the district's 10,000 square miles, said Barry Wallerstein, executive for the agency.
A massive storm late Sunday could have stirred up decay from a recent fish die-off at the Salton Sea, but air quality officials say they haven't ruled out other sources yet.
"The odor was extremely intense," said Janis Dawson of the Salton Sea Authority. "We actually thought that somebody had an accident, a broken sewage main, that's how strong it was."
The dying sea, a major resting stop for migrating birds on the Pacific Flyway, has been plagued by increasing salinity. Created in 1905 when floodwaters broke through a Colorado River irrigation canal, it's expected to shrink significantly by 2018 and become even saltier.
The sea had a fish die-off within the past week and that, combined with strong storms in the area late Sunday, could have churned up the water and unleashed bacteria from the sea floor that caused the stench, said Dawson.
The smell doesn't pose any health hazards, but it generated an explosion of quips on social media from Riverside County to the San Fernando Valley.
Jose Chavez, a 28-year-old comedian from San Fernando, tweeted: "The Valley is starting to smell like rotten eggs. In an unrelated note, Febreeze sales are through the roof in the San Fernando Valley."
Chavez was leaving the grocery store when he was overwhelmed by the odor, he said in a phone interview.
"My first thought was that maybe one of the eggs I bought was rotted and I got back home and the smell was still there so then I started to think it was me so I changed my clothes," he said. "It was very pungent."
Jack Crayon, an environmental scientist at California's Department of Fish and Game, said he recognized the smell as the typical odor when winds churn up the sea's waters and pull gases from the decomposition of fish or other organisms up to the surface.
He said the phenomenon typically occurs a few times a year in the area surrounding the lake, but it was unusual for the smell to spread so far.
Julie Hutchinson, battalion chief at California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Riverside, said heavy cloud cover that's been lingering over the area trapped the smell in the suburbs east of Los Angeles.
The smell was reported as far away as Palmdale and Lancaster, more than 150 miles north of the Salton Sea.
"It's just not able to evaporate up into the atmosphere," Hutchinson said Monday. "The moisture and thick, heavy air is keeping it in the lower ends of the valleys."Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/sea-371009-smell-air.html
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