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This one stinks all the way to the top!
Bay Ridge residents claim the only thing that smells worse than the putrid odors wafting from sewer grates on a notoriously bad-smelling stretch of Fort Hamilton Parkway is the city’s failure to stifle the rancid reek — so they’re hoping that a hired nose will be able to sniff out the problem.
Bay Ridge’s Community Board 10 voted unanimously on Monday to urge local politicians to bring in a paid proboscis to determine the source of the mysterious odor, which has plagued the neighborhood since the city spent $6.9 million in 2006 to connect sewer lines between Marine Avenue and 99th Street.
“It is really sad how these homeowners are suffering,” said CB10 Environmental Committee Chairman Greg Ahl. “An outside expert should be called in.”
The Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly investigated the odor — which can be so bad that one Fort Hamilton Parkway resident is considering moving away to escape the stink — but so far the agency has been unable to find a stanch for the stench.
“The Department of Environmental Protection continues to work to solve this matter and we apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for the community,” said spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla, whose agency attempted to hinder the repugnant reek in 2007 by placing nylon socks filled with pine deodorizer in the sewer.
But those socks — like most socks — did little to mask the vicious smell that was beneath them.
And except for brief moments of relief after rainy days, the stink hasn’t dissipated one bit.
“It’s terrible! Smells like rotten eggs,” said Linda Browning.
So Ridgites are relying on their electeds to hire odor experts like the R.J. Lee Group, which was tapped by Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) in 2007 to analyze the putrid smell from Owls Head sewage treatment plant.
Those stink savants helped the DEP determine which parts of the plant are the odorous.
Fort Hamilton Parkway residents hope that skilled schnozzes might finally solve the new stench.
“I’d like to be able to rely on city agencies and the engineers and the talent they have, but they just haven’t gotten it done,” said resident Bill Graves.
©2009 Community Newspaper Group
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