NY cries foul on NJ for smell

[DoYouEverWonder]

January 9, 2007

This time, the smell wasn't so sweet.

A sulphurous stench enveloped a swath of Manhattan for hours yesterday morning, spurring a multistate investigation that yielded only partial answers to yet another mysteriously malodorous episode for the city. And like past episodes, it seemed New Jersey was to blame.

With help of the U.S. Coast Guard, officials tracked the smell across the Hudson to New Jersey. Yet officials across the river could not conduct air tests, because they lacked exact locations to pinpoint the smell, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey state Department of Environmental Protection said.

"We think it emanates somewhere between Secaucus and Jersey City," said Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyodor095045602jan09,0,5001555.story?coll=ny-nynews-print


So northern NJ smells bad. What else is new?

[rfranklin]

1. So I farted....excuuuuuuuse me!

It was that Taco Bell burrito.

[Tesha]

2. Somewhere along the Turnpike...

Somewhere along the NJ Turnpike, there's an oil refinery
or chemical company that knows *EXACTLY* what happened,
but the odds of them confessing voluntarily are pretty
low.

Tesha

[mcscajun]

5. You've driven that section, too, I see.

Damn if there isn't one helluva stench between 15 and 13 on some nights.

[Lautremont]

13. The one time I drove exactly that section,

it stank to high heaven. All of us in the car were accusing the others of gaseous improprieties, but then we realized, wait a minute, we're just in New Jersey.

[mcscajun]

14. "gaseous improprieties" -- LOL

Yes, but please come see the rest of the state. I assure you it doesn't all reek like that. :)

[customerserviceguy]

19. I have to admit

I used to laugh at the "Jersey" jokes, too. But then, last year, my girlfriend took me to her New Jersey, the one she grew up in "down the shore" as she puts it. It's as beautiful as many parts of the Pacific Northwest.

The city of Tacoma, Washington used to have that sort of reputation as well, yet there are wonderful parts of that town.

[CatWoman]

15. I've driven it as well

and those fumes cause the eyes to burn, and the nose to twitch.

[primavera]

16. Only "on some nights"?

When has that desolate wasteland ever not stunk to high heaven?

[mcscajun]

18. Oddly enough, There were some nights (I'm not on that road much

at all anymore now that I live in NJ) when the wind must have blown things around, perhaps straight up, I dunno. But on some trips back to NYC from Central NJ, we weren't obliged to roll the windows up, screaming "OHMIGOD MY EYES!"

[Branjor]

3. Back in the 60s...

we used to drive from NYC along the NJ Turnpike and down the Garden State Pkwy for vacations in Atlantic city. When we went along certain parts of the turnpike rich in oil refineries, near Elizabeth, everyone used to hold their noses because it smelled so bad. It stunk then and it stinks now, but it susally didn't stink up Manhattan.

[mcscajun]

6. But then it was a particularly windy day yesterday...

...and that may have carried some of the effluvia far afield and into NYC.

And it isn't just oil refineries, either, in that stretch. There are some chemical plants producing god KNOWS what. There was always one spot where at night you'd get a strong chlorine scent permeating the air across the road. Ugh.

[mcscajun]

4. Ahem. Don't write off all of Northern NJ.

For the record, Northern NJ does NOT smell bad.

Certainly, there is an industrial corridor along I-95/New Jersey Turnpike that produces some, shall we say, eye-watering aromas, but that is one section of the state, and not even all of Northern NJ. Particularly at night, it's best to drive I-95 from Exit 15 to Exit 13 at a good clip with the windows UP.

Meanwhile, residents of Edison, NJ (around Exit 10) have had more to worry about from the wind off the Fresh Kills landfill in neighboring Staten Island, NJ, than from the industrial corridor to their north.

Many other states have odoriferous problems with their remaining industrial corridors as well.

Here in the Northwest of NJ, I have little to complain about, nose-wise, being in a suburban to rural mixed area. I do have some interesting sounds, though, as I live just a few miles away from a quarry, and the sounds of explosions do rock through here many a morning.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. There are some parts of Northern NJ

that are actually very pretty.

I got to go to Cooper Union's camp over in Sherwood Forest once. It was gorgeous around there.

[mcscajun]

8. Indeed, the entire Highlands/Skylands section of NJ is flat-out gorgeous.

:)

There are many other pretty sections as well, particularly along the Delaware River, and of course, along the Atlantic. I'm not a beach person, so I prefer the west of NJ.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. I had a couple of summer jobs

down on the Jersey Shore. One was has a mother's helper for some rich folks in Elberon (next door to Deal). That was a nice gig.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. As I said in another thread on this...

Joisey has over 100 Superfund sites and a a vast petrochemical industry. Some of the plants and sites go back to even before oil refining. Most of the operators are doing something to clean up their acts, but there are still a few pirates out there and abandoned sites that can leak a plume.

Everyone knows the aroma of the Turnpike between Linden and Secaucus, and when I lived there there were regular reports of noxious smells and gases-- sometimes requiring evacuations, road closings, and hospitalizations.

Rarely was the source ever found, or the plume as big as this one.

[Buzz Clik]

11. Yeah, bullshit.

They thought they had it narrowed down to an intersection in NYC, and now they're moving it across the Hudson "somewhere between Secaucus and Jersey City."?

I'll consider the source and let it go at that. Hopefully, it's regional humor.

[humbled_opinion]

12. It was a bad weekend for New York NFL Fans the stink came from ...

The Giants and the Jets.

[Kber]

17. Ha!