Officials say smelly odor posed no danger
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (January 11, 2023) – The city’s fire chief says a gas company adding a relatively harmless but smelly odorant to natural gas caused a stink in Uhrichsville that was smelled as far away as Dover.
Justin Edwards says the Northeast Ohio Gas Corporation was adding methyl mercaptan at its distribution facility off of Waterworks Hill Road Wednesday morning. That’s the agent that adds an odor to normally odorless natural gas.
Edwards says nothing was spilled on the ground. Rather, it was an airborne release.
Edwards says Uhrichsville had no reports of people getting sick. He says they found no evidence of natural gas being released.
The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office said the odor was not dangerous.
The first call about a smelly odor came in at 11:33 a.m. on Orchard Street. Claymont High School officials also reported the smell.
Edwards says eventually units were smelling the odor all over the city’s westside then into the north and northwest areas of the city.
Reports of a bad smell started coming in from New Philadelphia around 12:30, continuing into the afternoon in Dover.
Tuscarawas Central Catholic, New Philadelphia schools, New Towne Mall, Walmart, and downtown Dover businesses were among the locations. Dover’s last call about the odor was at 2:10 Wednesday afternoon.