Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Fire Marshal Believes Source of Mystery Odor Found

Foul stench spread from vicinity of Old Bethpage Restoration to parts of Plainview; 'Likely source" identified.

The Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office is focusing its attention on a Suffolk County wood debris dump now described as "a likely source" of the foul stench spreading across Old Bethpage and into Plainview since Wednesday.

The Fire Marshal says there is no danger associated with the smell, which teams on the ground say is beginning to dissipate.

Experts using sensitive air quality monitoring devices have determined that no significant risk exists from the odor that scores of people reported to authorities since Wednesday afternoon, said Nassau County Fire Marshal Vincent McManus.

McManus said Thursday afternoon that Hazmat teams are focusing on a sand and gravel pit just east of the Suffolk County line offer Spagnoli Road. "This is a likely source from which the vapors are coming," he said.

Company officials there told authorities this morning that their system for removing odors, a vapor recovery system, has not been operating properly in recent days, McManus said.

The company is working on the problem, McManus said. The sand pits of the 110 Sand Co. are located west of Route 110 and east of Round Swamp Road. Oyster Bay's Solid Waste Disposal Complex in near the site.

As the company excavates the sand, it back-fills the holes with wood and debris, McManus said. As that material breaks down in the environment it can emit odors similar to those that wafted over the area, experts said.

Fire marshals and other authorities spent the morning investigating the cause of the odor and early on had no idea where the it originated from. Plainview firefighters also responded to take part in the investigation.

National Grid did a search of the area to determine if any of their lines were severed. The utility determined that the leak was not from one of their pipes, McManus said.

The Nassau County Health Department was involved in the probe, and Suffolk County and even state authorities have been alerted to the incident, McManus said.

"We believe that whatever it is, it is naturally occurring," McManus said earlier. "It is obnoxious, but it is not a threat to the community."

There is construction and excavation underway at the Old Bethpage Restoration Village on Round Swamp Road. That site is no longer a suspect of the gas leak.

Oyster Bay officials also received several calls and teams were dispatched to the town's waste management center located off Sweet Hollow Road. Those crews inspected the facility and found that no garbage or debris was being stored outside, said town Spokeswoman Marta Kane.

Patch readers lit up our Facebook page with comments, saying the smell, described as "rotten eggs" or "sewage" was evident all across Old Bethpage in the vicinity of the Restoration Village and spread from there to the intersection of Old Country and Manetto Hill roads and beyond to Morton Village. Others said the foul stench was evident past Sunnyside Boulevard to the Parkway School.

"It's been stinking since at least 6 p.m. last night," said Ali Isaacs Kusinitz, who first alerted Patch to the problem.

"I thought I was going nuts last night; I smelled something burning around (midnight)," said Patch reader Lady Samantha. "Then, as the night went on, the smell became that of burning sulfur or methane."

That smell, often described as "rotten eggs" is consistent with methane gas, which occurs naturally in the environment, authorities said.

See more comments and add your own here or directly on to this story.

This remains a breaking story; Patch will provide updates.

See our breaking story from early Thursday morning here.


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