AWNY 5: Smell

Whoever Smelt It Dealt It… This week started off badly for Jersey lovers, but it was a golden opportunity for some ritualistic nose-thumbing (ha!) by New Yorkers–unfortunately, AllWaysNY is not immune. According to Charles Sturcken, spokesman for New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, the first complaints about the noxious scent that eventually blanketed much of midtown Manhattan emanated from the south and west of the city. We’re looking your way, Garden State. The specific cause of the smell is still a bit of a mystery, but the location of its source is becoming clearer and clearer. The Post today quoted Sturcken and Stephen Jones from the New Jersey office of Emergency Management:

We strongly believe the odor came from Jersey, somewhere from Secaucus to Jersey City,” Sturcken said. “That’s where the prevailing wind was coming from when the odor was strongest.” Jones said “it wouldn’t be hard to believe” the smell originated there.

“Not hard to believe”–and that was from New Jersey’s OEM official. They’re still trying to pin down the cause of the non-toxic, but pungent sulphury odor. It seems the general warmth and wetness of recent days has caused something foul to rise and linger in the atmosphere. Take your pick from the experts: Jersey marshlands, clogged sewers, or rotting vegetable matter. Whatever the cause, it’s high time we got some tractor-trailer loads of Gold Bond Medicated Powder flowing west through the Lincoln Tunnel.

Jersey Turnpike by bunkosquad on Flickr.
Path of Odor Graphic from the Post