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Who's writing for the New York Post? Edgy apparently.
N.J.'S P.U. RIPENS APPLE
By TOM LIDDY, DAN KADISON and ANDY GELLER
January 9, 2007 --
Who cut the cheese? New Jersey, apparently.
Across the length and breadth of Manhattan, people were asking, "What's that smell?" after a pungent odor like natural gas or rotten eggs blanketed the borough and northern New Jersey for three hours yesterday morning.
By evening, the answer seemed to be a stinky gas emitted by a New Jersey swamp or marsh.
"That's where our noses and instruments tell us" the smell was coming from, said Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection.
The theory is within "the realm of possibility," said Stephen Jones, a spokesman for the New Jersey office of Emergency Management.
The odor, which sparked fears of terrorism, had people jamming 911 and Con Ed lines from Battery Park to Inwood from river to river.
"It was really, really bad, so bad it gave me a headache," said Kate Browne, who lives in the West Village.
Alfred Stewart, 47, who lives in Chelsea, agreed.
"That smell was stinking. It smelled, like, toxic," he said. "If you stayed in it and held it enough, you probably would have gotten dizzy from it."
The odor disrupted mass transit during rush hour and forced brief evacuations of Macy's in Herald Square, several area schools and some Midtown skyscrapers.
The FDNY responded to 409 calls about the odor - with many residents fearing they had a gas leak.
Twelve people in the city were taken to hospitals complaining of breathing problems, as were seven people in northern New Jersey.
People milled about outside evacuated buildings, asking: What is rotten in the City of New York? The answer seemed to be mercaptan, a gas that contains sulfur compounds and is added to natural gas so leaks can be identified.
Mercaptan also occurs naturally when matter decays in the swamps or marshes, such as those that exist on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
"We strongly believe the odor came from Jersey, somewhere from Secaucus to Jersey City," Sturcken said. "That's where the prevailing wind was coming from when the odor was strongest."
Jones said "it wouldn't be hard to believe" the smell originated there.
Sturcken said the odor could have come from a utility or pipeline leak, but a check of utilities turned up nothing.
That heightened the possibility that the Jersey swamps or marshes were to blame, he said.
"When we got the huge rain we got [yesterday] after a dry period, it would lead to a release of mercaptan from the swamps and marshes on the Jersey side," he explained.
The National Weather Service said that a warm front passed over the city between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., causing a temperature inversion. Such inversions can trap odors and prevent them from dissipating.
Mayor Bloomberg said there was no indication the air was unsafe to breathe. "It may just be an unpleasant smell," he said.
And then he uttered a memorable line that summed up the feelings of most New Yorkers: "We are waiting for the gas to pass."
Con Ed said that between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., it received 700 calls.
Spokesman Chris Olert said checks showed there were no leaks in the system and sensors did not show an unusually high concentration of natural gas.
Public Service Electric & Gas, which serves northern New Jersey, said it received 900 calls from Jersey City north to Weehawken.
The FDNY said that from 8:49 a.m. to 10:47 a.m., it responded to 409 calls about the stench from Midtown to lower Manhattan.
Usually, the department gets 35 to 40 calls an hour in that area.
The stock market fell to its low for the day at 10:18 a.m. - 12,337 - as news of the stink hit the wires. It climbed back into the positive territory to close at 12,423.50.
The odor turned rush hour into a real headache. The 23rd Street station on the F line was closed for 24 minutes. PATH service from Hoboken and Journal Square to 33rd Street was suspended for an hour.
Norman Thomas HS at 33rd Street and Park Avenue and PS 11 at 320 W. 21st St. were briefly cleared out.
And Macy's in Herald Square briefly evacuated its employees before the store opened for business.
Samir Ahmed, 24, an advertising exec who lives on the Upper East Side, said he noticed the stink when he arrived at his office on Fifth Avenue and 46th Street at 8:45 a.m.
"Once I got here, I first smelled rotten eggs. It smelled like sulfur a little bit," Ahmed said. "I thought, at first, it was construction nearby - maybe they hit a line."
Then Ahmed received an e-mail from a friend that read, "Does all of New York smell like crap or is it just me?"
The advertising exec replied that "reports said it was coming from Jersey, so it may be that."
"But I hate to be a Jersey hater," Ahmed said. "Everybody assumes when they talk about smell or stench that it's wafting over from New Jersey."
Terrorism was quickly ruled out, but it was the first thing many New Yorkers thought of when they smelled that smell.
"When I first smelled the gas, I was concerned. When you smell gas, that's dangerous," said Roger Sanders, 60, a maintenance man for several West Village buildings.
"Then I heard they were smelling gas in Midtown. I thought it could be an act of terrorism. I can't see Macy's closing unless it was very, very serious."
Additional reporting by John Mazor
tom.liddy@nypost.com
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