COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Columbia Gas and Columbus firefighters continue to investigate the odor being smelled around central Ohio.
More than 100 calls have already been made today in regards to the smell.
According to Columbia Gas, they have found no evidence the smell is attributed to natural gas.
People have been complaining about the smell since about Tuesday.
James Lee, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA, said the agency has investigators in Chillicothe and in the south end of Columbus looking for possible sources of the smell. Lee said the Columbus Wastewater Treatment facility and the Franklin County landfill are operating within normal limits and have been ruled out as the source.
Columbia Gas spokesman Dave Rau said they have not found any indication that the odor people are smelling comes from natural gas. Rau said the company sends scratch and sniff cards to customers every year to help educate the public. “We want to make sure people know what that very distinctive smell of natural gas is,” Rau said.
Natural gas has a sharp and distinctive odor, often described as “rotten eggs.” The odor includes sulfur, the same compound that produces an odor after a match is struck.
Customers who aren’t sure what natural gas smells like can call Columbia Gas to request that a “scratch and sniff” card be mailed to them.
Columbia Gas crews are responding to each call, investigating to determine if natural gas is present.
Anyone who believes they smell natural gas should leave the area, go a safe place, and then call 911 and Columbia Gas at 1-800-344-4077.
Another possibility is that the smell is coming from radishes that farmers plant to improve the soil. The Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Kevin Elder, chief of the division of livestock and environmental permitting, said these are called oil-seed radishes or tillage radishes.
The radishes are planted after wheat or soybeans to improve the soil. The radishes grow until the ground freezes. When the ground starts to thaw, Elder said, they start to decay and break down. The decomposition sometimes smells similar to natural gas.
Elder said there is no reason to believe it is the tillage radishes, but it is a possibility.
Residents have describe the odor in a variety of ways. One caller to 911 said it smelled more like “car oil and sewer.” Others described a “rotten egg” smell. One south side resident said it smelled like a pile of rotting animal carcases.
Northside resident Kelli Apling said it was a very strong odor this morning. “It smelled like gas,” Apling said. “It was really stinky and smelly like it usually is when there’s a gas leak.”
