Did you smell something funny in the air on Sunday morning?

[xray s]

A whole lot of people did...


http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=3841121

What was that smell? Gas company not sure
By Eric Peterson Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, February 28, 2005

A mysterious, gas-like odor in Northwest suburbs stretching from Park Ridge to Crystal Lake early Sunday left fire departments and Nicor Gas officials searching for a source but coming up with no definite answers. While fire and police officials in affected communities initially relied on explanations ranging from a refinery fire in northwest Indiana to an overpurging of a natural gas system near Lake Michigan, it was soon discovered that none of these theories might be true. "We are not able to identify the smell as natural gas," Nicor spokesman Tom Kallay said. "What it is, we don't know. All I can tell you is that from Nicor's standpoint it was not natural gas, and so customers were not in any danger from natural gas." Between about 2:30 a.m. and noon Sunday, the company fielded about 600 calls regarding the odor. By afternoon, the calls had died down. Complaints came from such far-apart communities as Algonquin, Wauconda, Schaumburg, Bellwood and Cicero, officials said.

Despite ruling out natural gas as a cause of the smell, Kallay said residents were right to call Nicor whenever and wherever they detected a suspicious odor. The Countryside Fire Department, which serves Vernon Hills, Long Grove, Hawthorn Woods and an unincorporated area near Mundelein, got six calls, Capt. Mike Hodges said. "I was told the smell went all the way to Woodstock," he said.

Police in Buffalo Grove said they'd received about 20 calls about the smell by 10 a.m. Sunday. A Nicor customer service representative said she took a call from a woman in Lake Zurich who said she thought she was going to vomit when she smelled the overwhelming odor outside her home.

A fire at a BP Amoco oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., was the explanation Nicor representatives gave customers for a time.But BP officials said the fire at their refinery was a small one involving wooden scaffolding early Saturday afternoon. They said they doubted that the fire could have caused an odor to travel so far and linger so long.

[Jamastiene]

1. Probably

something the gas companies aren't owning up to. I mean their business is rather gassy and they do put additives in the gas to make it stink so people will know there's a gas leak.

Then again, it could have just been one of those days where everything stinks. I've had those. ;)

[Sporadicus]

2. Methyl Mercaptans Is the Likely Source

Methyl mercaptans is the substance added to natural gas to give it an odor which lets everyone aware of a gas leak. By itself, methyl mercaptans is highly concentrated; people can smell it in concentrations as low as 30 ppb (parts per BILLION).

I know firsthand the false alarms this substance can engender. I once worked in the materials lab of a company that made rubber products. I was preparing a solution under a vent hood that contained methyl mercaptans, but I got called away for a few minutes. As I left the bottle uncapped during that time, the fumes were being vented through the stack at the top of the building. Within a few minutes, gas company personnel, police & fire department were scouring the neighborhood, looking for a gas leak. I never made the mistake of leaving the bottle uncapped again!