Letter: The Coastside Olfactory Challenge

For at least the last seven months, a strong chemical odor has been turning up on the west side of the 700 block on Main Street.

This odor has been noticed over the sidewalk manhole cover in front of the Classic Reflections Hair Salon at 736 Main, but that cover, according to City workers, is for untility access and has nothing to do with the sewer or the storm drain. The ether/acetone-like odor has been evident almost every day since last December and was recently corroborated by one of the nearby bank employees. The chemical-like odor at this location, while not incapacitating, is at times very strong and is "always" immediately downwind of the manhole cover.

The odor has also been noticed around the manhole covers in the street on Correas immediately south of the Bank of America, but at much weaker levels than at 736 Main and on only two occasions.

However, the really disturbing part of this story is that the same odor is also apparent west of this Main street location ....... all the way out on the Coastal Trail at the theoretical extension of Central Ave. To add to the mystery, the Coastal Trail location lines up almost perfectly with Central Ave., the northern part of the Amesport loop (which is really quite straight) and the location at Main St., and yet city workers and others swear there is no connection whatsoever between Main Street and the Coastal Trail. At its worst the odor at the Coastal Trail was coming from the gully dead opposite Central Ave. Now, as the ground has dried out some, the odor seems to have migrated roughly 50 feet north to an area near the memorial bench dedicated to Edward Ferrin.

The San Mateo Environmental Health people have been contacted, as have been the Bay Area Air Quality folks, and so far none of them have been able to notice this noxious odor that has been around for seven months now.

If you have noticed this odor or have any comments, please post.