NY officials say stink came from New Jersey
A mysterious gas-like odour that covered much of Manhattan, had residents flooding emergency phone lines with worried queries and caused rail disruptions yesterday most likely emanated from New Jersey, a city environmental official said today.
Authorities have yet to identify the odour, though Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday there was no indication that the air was unsafe to breathe.
Federal officials also quickly discounted the possibility of terrorism.
The stench seems to have come from New Jersey, according to Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection.
“With the way we tracked the dispersion of the smell and the prevailing winds indicates that it came from New Jersey, somewhere near Secaucus,” Sturcken said today.
Sturcken said that the smell could have been caused by mercaptan, the chemical added to normally odourless natural gas to make it easily detectable, but he said nothing has been confirmed.
