E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSTesting of air samples from locations in the Inland Empire and around the Salton Sea appear to have revealed the cause of a sulfur odor that fouled the air in areas of Southern California Monday.
As suspected, the culprit was likely the Salton Sea, a large saltwater lake about 150 miles east of Los Angeles that often has decaying fish and algae on its shores.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District said it had taken samples from 10 locations in the Inland Empire, Coachella Valley and near the Salton Sea. The samples showed a progression of hydrogen sulfide levels that were strongest near the sea.
"We now have solid evidence that clearly points to the Salton Sea as the source of a very large and unusual odor event," said Barry Wallerstein, executive director of the district, which oversees air quality in much of Southern California.
AQMD had suspected the 376-square-mile body of water as the source of the smell, but air district officials said late Monday that more investigation was needed to be certain about the cause of the rotten-egg odor.
Inspectors were in the field Monday in the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Colton, San Bernardino, Riverside, Perris, Temecula, Banning, Palm Springs, La Quinta and the Salton Sea, the agency said.
They found decreasing concentrations of hydrogen sulfide as distance grew from the Salton Sea.
The chemical compound, which is a product of organic decay such as that which occurs at the sea, has an "unmistakable rotten-egg odor," according to a press release issued by AQMD Tuesday evening.
The Salton Sea has regular massive fish kills in its waters, which are often polluted with pesticide runoff from nearby agricultural operations.
More from NBCLA: Video shows woman trying to steal from disabled person
The agency said it ruled out other potential sources of the smell such as landfills and oil refineries. An examination of recent weather patterns showed the smelly air could have traveled such a long distances, the air district said.
AQMD had received about 235 complaints about the odor Monday, and just about a dozen overnight and Tuesday morning. The strong stench, however, could be easily detected in some parts of central Los Angeles late Tuesday night.
Thunderstorms around the Salton Sea and high winds could have stirred up bacteria-laden water from the bottom of the sea, pushing the odor more than 100 miles to the Los Angeles region, the air district said.
"Winds from the southeast of at least 50 mph pushed odors from the Salton Sea to the northwest – across the Coachella Valley, through the Banning Pass and across the Los Angeles Basin," the AQMD said in a statement.
An onshore breeze from the west has since kept odors at bay.
Late Monday, Wallerstein said it was "highly unusual for odors to remain strong up to 150 miles from their source."
The agency said the high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were not enough to cause "irreversible harm to human health."
Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: iPhone/iPad App | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram | RSS | Text Alerts | Email Alerts
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Evidence shows White House got many pre-9/11 warnings
- FAO: VA struggles to calculate lost wages for wounded vets
- Key question in Chicago strike: How do you measure a teacher
- Professor in Ala. university shooting rampage pleads guilty
- Jailbird ex-cops talk about Drew Peterson's fate in prison
- Video: New footage released of Sikh temple shooting
- Cops: Woman kills husband, mistaking him for intruder
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
I wonder if it legal, in California, to sue the dead fish. The complaints must be to record the offender for actionable results in the future. Otherwise, why complain about a stench. Shut up, California, you are part of the problem.
Sue the people who developed the Imperial Valley. The Salton Sea was dry until 1905 when the Colorado River broke through some canal gates and flooded the Salton Trough for two years.
Well, one idea would be to stop dumping all the agricultural poison runoff into it...nah, no one would consider that, and yep, dead things stick. Sucks for the life there.
It is official, SoCal stinks. Hey guys, sorry for the bad pun. It was just wayyyy toooooo easy. I hope it gets better soon with a change of the wind patterns and adsorbtion and absorption of the fetid fish by sunlight decomposition and wave action.
The situation just stinks. sorry! there I go again.
It's easy to blame the fish. The smell is actually coming from Hollywood.
The fish were the one's complaining.
The fish are raising a big stink over the condition of their lake....
I seem to remember the smell of rotten eggs in the disaster movie "Dante's Peak". Did they rule that out? It's common along with CO2 in the African rift.
Maybe the California rift is about to begin!
Keep in mind there was a tremendous swarm of earthquakes just to the south of the Salton Sea just a few weeks ago bear Brawley.
Related?
Or it could just be the influx of millions of illegals along the border nearby......
Illegals with a bad case of Flatulence!
Ask Pat Roberts. He is an expert on God induced disasters. Especially where the smell of sulphurous fumes and Dante's rift might be involved. I'm sure he will be able to tell you the exact time of the event based on his studies of the scriptures.
I only add this because of my particular interpretation of "Beware False Prophets." I am actually a good Christian boy by most peoples accounts.
more2bits - That's the first thing I thought of. The entire Pacific ring of fire is really active lately - the earthquakes in the Gulf of California, the Brawley swarm, the eq off the coast of Venezuela, Mt. Fuji is groaning and threatening to blow, and just general activity all over the ring. My first thought was venting, but since I'm not a geologist I can't really say. It's just an intuitive thought.
hell smells like sulfur.
Its called Brimstone. Insert gomorrah-by-the-sea joke here. ;)
The earthquake idea has merit but you lessen the point with the racist comment. If one would check, the south western USA was owned by Mexico in the past. Note the Spanish names of all your cities. Racism lessens all those who practice it. Better to stay on point.
seriously,be a kitty cat elsewhere
Racism aside, you made the point I always strive to make myself...California was referred to as "Norte Mexico" by the SPANIARDS first, not the indigenous Mexicans who spoke "Indian" (native Mexican) accents. Mexico "owned" nothing in the US, aside from their claim to Texas as a former colony. Most Native American tribes would have disputed Mexico's "ownership" of any US territory, formerly tribal possessions. If you review history, Spain controlled the southwest and established the missions.
when did the migrant workers start working the fields? and now tax payers are providing school and medical for their children? yeh, something smells rotten.
No mas frijoles refritos para ustedes-comprende????? Or is Hollywood filming a remake of Blazing Saddles?
"The agency said the high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were not enough to cause "irreversible harm to human health."
Well, as long as it's not irreversible harm, then it should be just fine. Hydrogen sulfide is one of the most deadly gasses around and even in small concentrations can knock you down or kill you. It is one of the biggest dangers to people who work in the oil industry and kills lots of people every year. If you can smell it, you should get away from it.
I read somewhere that the Salton Sea was one of those places where a massive H2S release could happen. If it ever did happen, anything downwind would be lucky to survive.
Hugh, you are exactly right...H2S is one of the most feared gases that will kill in a heartbeat! Ohhh I get it, of course it won't cause "irreversible harm to human health" because it will KILL you! Sheesshh Cali...
Hugh and Sarah
FYI - H2S is a naturally occurring gas produced by the decomposing of organic matter. Most people smell it every day, especially if you eat boiled eggs and beans for breakfast. It exists almost everywhere in society, sewers, compost piles, industrial processes, and especially in lakes and rivers as vegetation dies with changes of seasons. It is also very soluble and disperses quickly in air, though it is easily detected by most people as rotten eggs as low as .1 Part Per Million in the atmosphere, it is not not known to start affecting health until over 100 ppm. It becomes deadly over 500 ppm.
Pretty sad... many years ago the Salton Sea was a resort area with fishing, water skiing, swimming... and clean water. Now its just a holding pond for farm runoff.
It is the way it is because of the water hogs in S.Cal. They have done everything they possibly can to keep all but polluted water out of the Salton Sea. And now they whine about a problem they caused.
I remember our family constantly being dragged (kicking and screaming, btw) to the Salton Sea over 40 years ago. Our parents seemed to love the place. You could just about walk across the thing on the bodies of the dead fish that floated in it.
As soon as I heard about the smell, I KNEW it was the Salton Sea. Was a cesspool back then, and still is. You can't even eat the fish you catch from it.
I would have bet my life savings it was coming from Nancy Pelosi and Diane Finestein!!!!!
Wrong..it was from Reagans "trickle down theory" still polluting the U.S.
Here most people thought it was Pelosi and Boxer that were stinking up the state.
I went to see the volcanos in Hawaii & it smelled like sulphur there all the steam & gases coming out of the ground.
Hydrogen sulfide smell can really carry a long way. I used to live about sixty miles due south of a gigantic Westvaco paper mill and when the wind was out of the north strongly you could really smell it; and even though it was a big paper mill it wasn't anywhere hear the size of the Salton Sea.
Or anything NEAR that size, either.
Salton Sea... maybe but I still think it was just Nancy Pelosi in dire need of a douche!
Anyone who has traveled I-15 to Las Vegas, know that when they reach the town of Baker, Ca. that smell is always in the air. There is no lake with dead fish anywhere near there. It is not their sewer or lack of either. Others have mentioned cracks in the earth may emit the odors. This area is close to Death Valley and many earthquake faults known in So. Ca. Time will tell.
Mother Earth is ready for a reset. The most sacred symbol in life is the circle, and everything that goes around, comes back around. Some people call it Karma. It is simply the readjustment of balance in nature.
All the indigenous People have prophecies relating to a Change occurring in the near future of this cycle of the Earth's rotations, and we have been experiencing many weather anomalies.
But it's all just Native superstitions and simply coincidence that indigenous People from as far away as Brazil, Peru, and obscure islands have the same prophecies as the Mayans and the Native Americans, and that these prophecies reach back as much as a thousand years when there was no way these primitive people could have communicated with each other.
So there is no truth to the rumour that it was Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and the other wack jobs in Sacramento? Damn! Seems this state is doomed afterall.
Funny you should mention Sacramento. Every time I was there that's what the water smelled like.
After that, I was always sure to shower in Reno before going into California.
Okay, so it came from the Salton Sea. That doesn't prove whether it came from dying fish, or if it came from underneath the water (the earth) and that's what killed the fish. I'm not sure what the truth is, but it's irritating that the officials don't even address the earthquake question that people all over the Internet are talking about. Google "sulfur smell california earthquake" and it's all over the net. The 1906 San Francisco quake and the 1975 Heicheng earthquake supposedly had a sulfur smell prior.
Thanks Thinker!
Stank is from all the fruitcakes that live in LA
The smell is not from fish. It is a bunch of blind "L-word" ladies trying to "find" each other in a grocery store.
I like the statement "often polluted with pesticide runoff from nearby agricultural operations" !!! Doesn't California and the U.S. have pollution laws that stop this kind of environmental damage ? Is chemical farming in Cailfornia so important that we can give it a 376 sq mile lake for a few farmers to pollute ??
Where is our politicians that are suppose to help protect us and the environment ? Off with their heads !!! as the queen would say.
Why in the world did the author include the statement: "often polluted with pesticide runoff from nearby agricultural operations"? There is no other information about pesticides in the article or any backing of the presumptive statement with no clarifications about what "polluted" means or what pesticide concentrations there are in the lake.
This is a story about apparent anoxic decay releasing hydrogen sulfide compounds and causing a stink. It happens. It's caused by organic materials being deposited (in this case - the Salton Sea, a terminal lake), decaying, becoming anoxic, releasing sulfur, and stinking. It may be the result of nutrients (like phosphorus and nitrogen - often coming from agricultural operations) stimulating plant (typically algea) growth, dying, decaying, becoming anoxic, releasing sulter, and stinking.
Pesticides have nothing to do with this, and unless the author wants to describe a tie, he (she) should have left the statement completely out. It shows that the author is either somewhat ignorant about the process or wants to include an inflammatory and unfounded statement to garner interest.
I was in HUntington Beach over the weekend, and smelled what smelled like rotten eggs (or flatulence) on my son's patio...he said it was methane from the oil wells just down the road. They apparently get it on occasion...I didn't like the sound of that either, if true.
And the environmentalists want to confiscate 110% of everyone's income to 'fix' this natural issue, just because they said so, and it offends their rose petal noses.
Well I live here and this is no "dead fish" smell... I've been here too long and know too well the smell of fish die offs, both here and in lake Elsinore. This is the same smell that the volcano tour in Hawaii had, made my clothes and shoes stink for days.
Something "fishy" going on under my feet.....
It's probably Mexican hookers; they're everywhere down here now. I've heard some of them will do anything for $5.00