Foul Smell Plagues Benning Road NE

Residents and commuters just east of booming H Street NE on Wednesday couldn't escape an unpleasant odor.

A foul smell pervaded the area near Benning Road and 17th Street NE, disgusted locals told News4.

"It's making me nauseated. It's a horrible smell," resident Patricia Cave said.

"It smells like incinerated animal -- sewage," driver Rick Miles said.

The manager of Wings N' More Wings on Benning Road doused the street outside the business with a bleach solution after he saw a garbage truck spew liquid.

When that didn't work, the District Department of the Environment used a "flusher truck" to hose down the street, and field-tested the liquid.

"We didn't find any hazardous materials or anything like that involved," DDOE emergency operations chief John Emminizer, Jr. said. "It's basically trash liquid from a trash truck."

The apparent garbage juice will be analyzed in a lab.

As of Wednesday evening, only a faint smell remained.

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