After complaints about a mystery odor in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., water utility workers will be on the case.
Cheverly residents reported the strong smell last weekend.
“I smelled it in the middle of the night,” resident Ivy Finkenstadt said.
She said it had an animal smell.
“When I woke up, I found out through our neighborhood listserv that a lot of other people had smelled it, and it wasn’t the cat,” she said.
“It greeted me bright and early on Saturday morning,” Prince George’s County Councilwoman Jolene Ivey said.
She described it as sewage, gas and burning rubber.
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Since Labor Day, from Northeast D.C. to Cheverly, officials have been trying to figure out what the smell was.
Everyone from the fire department to the gas company has been contacted, but no one has found the source.
WSSC checked 36 manholes for signs of dumping in the sewer but found nothing.
WSSC says the drinking water is safe.
The smell dissipated, but if it returns, WSSC wants to hear from whoever smells it.
They have concerns someone may be dumping in the sewer, and if that’s the case, they have ways to trace it.
