Apr 7, 2009 3 min read

Since the heavy rains of Sunday, March 28, many island residents have been asking, “What’s that smell?” Following an investigation by the local office of the Department of Environmental Protection and other local agencies, it has been concluded that the odor is a natural phenomenon.

“We are getting a lot of odor complaints from this area. After our (DEP) and the county’s investigation, we have concluded that it is a natural odor, not sewer odor, from the wetlands and the rain from (last) weekend,” said Keith Kleinmann with DEP via an e-mail correspondence.

According to Eileen Cardona with DEP, this event is not unusual for areas like Pine Island.

“What happens is when a wetland area lays dry for a long period of time and then gets saturated with a heavy rainfall, this type of odor will emerge,” said Cardona. “We began getting phone calls about the terrible odor shortly after the weekend rains so this is not unusual for places like Pine Island where wetlands are abundant for this to occur.”

Flamingo Bay resident Barry Thrasher had been bothered by the odor for a number of days and decided to do some investigating on his own.

“I was a prisoner in my own home. The smell was so bad that it literally made me sick to my stomach so I decided to take a ride over to Pine Island Cove where I believed the smell was coming from,” said Thrasher. “When I got there, I met a gentleman who took me to an area in the park that once had mangroves. The mangroves had been destroyed years ago and now, whenever we have a heavy rain after a drought, it emits a terrible smell, so I have to now agree with the DEP’s findings.”

Also investigating the source of the smell was Phil Cowan with the Lee County Department of Health.

“We did a physical check of the package plant at Pine Island Cove, which many residents believed could be the source of the problem, but it checked out fine,” said Cowan. “We also checked the island treatment plant and other sewer systems on the island and all were fine, so we concur with the DEP that this odor is coming from mangrove and wetland areas. With the recent rise in air temperature and humidity, coupled with the weekend rain, we feel certain that this is a natural happening. As for how long the oder will remain, we are dealing with nature and there is no sure formula to determine when it will subside.”

When asked if the odor presented any health risk, Cowan said that it may be particularly bothersome to certain individuals and those with health concerns should consult their physician.

Other troubled areas in the county experiencing a similar instance of foul odor in the air include Punta Rassa, Sunshine MP, John Morris and Iona areas as well as the south side of Summerlin Road near Shell Point Drive in Fort Myers.