SLIDESHOW: The stink returns to Meadville

Meadville Tribune

June 22, 2008 12:25 am

— Click image for slideshow


By Keith Gushard
Meadville Tribune
Saturday was the second night in a row, the smell of rotten eggs permeated the air in parts of Meadville for several hours.
The odor may have dissipated, but the mystery surrounding its cause still lingers.
The stench of hydrogen sulfide came out of Meadville’s sanitary sewer system for several hours Saturday night in an area bounded by Baldwin, Terrace, Spring streets and Glenwood Avenue. The same thing had happened in the same area Friday night.
“We have no clue,” Lt. Ryan Carlson of Meadville Central Fire Department said Saturday night following the evening’s incident.
“We still don’t know what caused it,” Capt. Evan Hasko of Meadville Central Fire Department said of Friday’s incident. “We’re lucky it’s staying within the sewer system and not going into people’s homes.”
“We’re going to have to regroup Monday and see what we have,” said Joe Chriest, Meadville’s city manager, who was called to the scene Saturday.
One person was taken to Meadville Medical Center for evaluation during Saturday night’s incident and still was undergoing treatment for a respiratory ailment as of press time.
No other injuries were reported in either incident and no one was transported to the hospital from Friday’s incident.
Hydrogen sulfide has the odor of rotting eggs and can be lethal in concentrated doses.
Emergency personnel were called the scene just after 6 p.m. Saturday after residents along Glenwood Avenue noticed the odor. Sanitary sewers were flushed with water until the hydrogen sulfide levels to drop back to zero around 9:15 p.m. Saturday.
On Friday, emergency personnel had been called to the same area around 7:30 p.m. and stayed until 11:16 p.m. before levels of hydrogen sulfide finally had dropped back to zero after flushing the sanitary sewers in the area with water.
Friday and Saturday were the third and fourth times the odor has been noticed in the same area of the city within the past year. It was noticed both in June 2007 and August 2007.
The 2007 incidents were so bad some homes were evacuated and a few residents were hospitalized.
On both Friday and Saturday emergency personnel went door-to-door urging residents to leave the area. Hasko estimated between 50 and 75 homes and apartments were in the area.
At least nine people went to a safety area set up in the parking lot of the Penn Plaza Friday night, but there were no illnesses.
On Saturday night, about 20 people came to the safety area at the Penn Plaza. They were transported by Corey Limousine Service to shelter at the West Mead 2 Volunteer Fire Department when thunderstorms moved through the area.
In the incidents both Friday and Saturday and the June 2007 incident, emergency responders detected potentially lethal levels of hydrogen sulfide emanating from the manholes in the area.
Produced naturally by decaying organic matter, hydrogen sulfide is released from sewage sludge, liquid manure, sulfur hot springs and natural gas, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Federal guidelines call for a maximum of 20 parts per million as a safe level while 30 parts per million is the level at which emergency action should be taken. A reading of 100 parts per million is considered dangerous to life and health. Not only can the gas explode, the stench can cause loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest.
In June 2007, a level of 499 parts per million was detected in the sewers; both Friday and Saturday nights that level reached more than 500 parts per million at a manhole in the Baldwin Street Extension area near The Junction tavern and Weber-Harris Ford before receding.

Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

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