Odor complaints flood Hamilton County, Indianapolis

The IndyStar, Indianapolis, reports that residents of Hamilton County, Indiana, were overwhemled by a pervasive stench Tuesday, July 19, 2016, that Citizens Energy Group attributed to Heritage-Crystal Clean (HCC) recycling center in Speedway.

According to the article, HCC issued a press release that states: “We do not believe that this shutdown and restart of our facility is connected to the odor problems reported throughout Indianapolis today due to the nature of the odors and the geographical location where the odors were reported,” referring to a semi-annual shutdown of its oil recycling facility. The company did confirm, however, that air was released from this a facility on Tenth Street, the newspaper reports. 

Residents asked if the smell was the result of a natural gas leak. An initial news release misidentified a factory on 96th Street as the source of the odor, and attributed the smell to the chemical additive mercaptan. 

“It’s just coincidental that whatever was released by Heritage-Crystal Clean smelled like natural gas,” Sarah Holsapple, spokeswoman for Citizens Energy Group, told the newspaper. 

The exact composition of the substance responsible for the smell remains unknown, the article says.