Foul Odors in North Valley Pose Mystery

Air-quality officials said Wednesday that they have been unable to identify the cause of noxious odors that have prompted at least 50 complaints since Monday from people in the North Valley areas of Pacoima, Mission Hills and Granada Hills.

“Right now, we’re still investigating, and that will continue until we are able to determine the cause,” Ron Ketcham, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said.

Ketcham said air district inspectors have checked “at least three or four landfills” in the areas and the Newhall Refining Co. oil refinery in Newhall but have been unable to pinpoint a source.

Ketcham said the odors are “perplexing” because they have come from areas several miles apart, suggesting that more than one source is involved.

The complaints have coincided with a period of surface inversions, during which air is stagnant and stays close to the ground. Ketcham said district inspectors believe this may play a part in the problem by concentrating odors that normally disperse into the upper air and thus are not detected.

“I suspect that the weather pattern right now is conducive to localized odor problems,” Ketcham said.

Today should bring “some lessening of the surface inversions, so, if the weather is playing a part, we should be seeing a lessening of the odor complaints,” Ketcham said.

The odors have been variously described as having a gaseous, sulfurous or chemical smell. Reports of illness have accompanied at least a few of the odor complaints, including ones at Haddon Avenue School, 10115 Haddon Ave. in Pacoima, where several teachers and students reportedly suffered headaches and nausea on Monday.