By DERIC C. NANCE
deric@du2.byu.edu
The mysterious stench plaguing Salt Lake is decreasing and may leave Utah's Department of Air Quality baffled despite its investigations, said Marvin Maxell, DAQ's air standards branch manager.
Monday night a team of experts from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived to get a sample of the odor. However, Maxell said EPA's Martha Wolf and Dave Mickunus spent the day investigating potential sources of the odor that has sickened people since last Thursday, and they came up empty-handed.
Five odor complaints around West High School were reported by Salt Lake residents Tuesday, said Maxell. 'However, the odors discovered were not related to our mysterious odor we've received reports of.'
Brock LeBaron, DAQ's technical supervisor, said no complaints were reported Wednesday morning and very few callers reported an odor throughout the day.
'If a problem in your car does not continue when you take it to the mechanic, the mechanic really has no easy way of discovering the problem,' LeBaron said.
Lebaron said he beleives rainy weather caused the number of complaints to drop to zero Sunday, but the officials from DAQ were frustrated they have been unable to track down the smell despite the constant weather Tuesday and Wednesday.
LeBaron said the largest portions of odor complaints have been coming from the South Bountiful area and the North Salt Lake area in Davis County. Salt Lake County residents report a foul odor near the Capitol and the Avenues, up east near the University of Utah and as far south as Hogle Zoo.
LeBaron said electronic weather mapping is being used to retrace the odor's path. It's a slow, technical process that may take a while to achieve results, he said.
Richard Valentine, assistant director of air pollution control at Salt Lake County Health Bureau, said he is very hopeful that the cause will be discovered even if complaints from Salt Lake residents cease.
Valentine said enough data has been collected from the DAQ, and the EPA that will lead them to the source of the odor.
DAQ's air standards branch manager, Marvin Maxell, said they've received several complaints of a cat odor as well as nitrogen compound smells in the Salt Lake and Davis County areas.
The odor may be a combinations of several odors, Maxell said. Such synergistic effect would create a smell unrelated to the variety of sources the smell may be coming from.
The rain storms in the forecast may wash the air completely and erase the smell for good, Maxell said.