Posted on 01/08/2007 9:40:02 AM PST by presidio9
Mayor Bloomberg said the city does not know what the puzzling odor wafting over Manhattan and N.J. is, but "it does not appear to be dangerous."'
Hundreds of calls came in about the smell beginning at about 9 a.m. from as far south as Battery Park and east to Union Square and all the way through the West 80s on the Upper West Side. The odor also could be detected in New Jersey.
The smell disrupted some PATH transit service and prompted office buildings to evacuate.
"Our sensors do not show any high concentration of natural gas that would give us cause to be concerned," Bloomberg said at a morning press conference.
"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 said investigators from the Office of Emergency Management, FDNY, NYPD, Coast Guard and other departments are probing the cause of the odor.
The mayor noted that natural gas is odorless and colorless. However, a chemical called mercaptan is added to the substance to make sure it can be detected. He said just a small amount can create an odor.
One small gas leak has been detected at Bleeker Street and Sixth Avenue, Bloomberg said, adding that it is too insignificant to have caused the widespread odor that has put the city on edge.
Consolidated Edison officials said they have more than 60 workers checking for leaks after the company received more than 700 calls about the smell, from as far north as Washington Heights to as far south as Greenwich Village
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Boiler feed lines?
Why not a malfunctioning NatGas odorant plant? Enough mercaptan there to stink up the entire metro area.
Does anyone know if these are underground in NYC?
Don't know. Maybe dying sniffers were saying, "Ah...ahhh....ahhhhh!" and observers presumed they were trying to say, "ALMOND!"
Jerry Nadler (fat leftist pig) passed the gas.....
Now we are waiting for it to DISSIPATE......
I would first be looking for pulp paper plants or similar industrials using sulfuric acids within a fifty mile radius. Emissions output combined with stagnant atmospheric conditions, such as would usually result in fog, would put the odor(s) back along the ground.
Exactly what were the atmospheric conditions last night? Low clouds? fog? little to no wind?
Even light rain, at times, causes the paper mill 30 miles to the east of my hometown to make the outside air smell like an open sewer. Sulfur dioxide, I think, is the culprit.
After the football game, of course.
Maybe he has a dry sense of humor.
hahahahahahaha!!! reminds me of my 6-yo son who, when smelling something bad, asks, "is someone pass-gassing?"
Because Bloomberg has ruled out the possibility of second-hand smoke.
so true..I forgot..by the way, I don't remember pelosi stating WHEN the 100 hours start..kinda like when my girlfriend starts to scratch my back..I tell her she has 3 hours and the clock hasn't started yet...:)
How long until this becomes Scrappleface?
This morning the Senate was discussing urgent business. Senator Salazar of Colorado was introducing legislation to name a Post Office in Vail, CO for Gerald R. Ford.
**Since mercaptan is such an easily traced gas in extremely small amounts, maybe someone was rehearsing just to see how far a lethal gas would go and its likely path.**
My thoughts exactly.
And mercaptan can be used in tiny amounts to make a BIG smell.
Pigeons, sparrows and grackles were mentioned during the 1 PM news on KLBJ. The latest count found on the street was 63, but they were still looking on roofs and other raised areas.
A bad sequencing control on a boiler. The line itself would be fine and not leaking. But if the control goes bad it could possibly not fire the boiler but allow raw natural gas into the boiler. Boilers use forced draft blowers. If the blower is operating that would take the raw gas on out the boilers exhaust stack usually on the roof. This would likely be a multi story build maybe 5 stories likely much higher. With the area effected it sound like a sizable building.
Natural gas being heavier than air settles to the ground. It would take a building by building search to locate it. A boiler under IIRC 15PSI operation steam pressure doesn't require a boiler operator present which would make immediate detection less likely.
Could be that too.
i think they'll find that hillary let go of a tremendous fart into a northerly wind
Still doesn't sound like a high enough concentration of mercaptan to me. Mercaptan levels in natgas are extremely small (odor detection levels at the human nose are around 1 ppb). I work in the natgas industry and have experience with mercaptan.
I also know that natural gas is lighter than air at sea level and would not "settle to the ground" (just FYI)
In Oxnard California today state troopers have closed Highway 1 in both directions due to a "noxious smell in the area"
So it would appear that there could be more than one toxic gas involved here. No one can make any comments about the danger, if any, until the concentrations of each particular gas in air samples are known.
The safest thing to do would be stay as far away as possible until the tests are run.
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