Published: February 20, 2008 10:29 pm      

NORTH TONAWANDA: Something in the air

Colleen Osborn knows just how bad the smell can be.

“It’s stop-you-in-your-tracks strong,” Osborn said.

Osborn, a North Tonawanda resident who resides on Roncroff Drive, often encounters a stench while taking a walk down her street. The odor itself is atrocious enough, but Osborn wonders if the smell is causing health problems, as well.

The powerful stench rises from a bubbler drain at a neighbor’s home on the same street. The smell has been a problem since October, Osborn said.

A walk by the bubbler in question confronts passersby with an overpowering rotten egg stench. The ground and nearby curb have turned white and gray from the water, which continuously pumps from the bubbler without stopping.

“I mean, this is just not right,” Osborn said. “It goes all the way down the street. The wind catches it.”

Fellow Roncroff Drive resident Roger Manth is also looking for an explanation.

“What’s the source of this water?” Manth said. “Where is it coming from and why is there a constant flow? There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Osborn’s concerns reach beyond the point of her own nose. Her son, Ryan, was diagnosed late last year with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, an extremely rare blood disorder which can lead to long-term chronic health problems. The cause of LCH is unknown.

Ryan’s recent diagnosis and recent odor issues on the street could be completely coincidental, but Osborn wants to know that information for certain.

“I’m not looking for somebody to blame for his illness, but if this at all has led to it, I believe I’m entitled to the results of the water test,” Osborn said.

Osborn has dealt with numerous officials on the matter, but so far, has gotten no results. One of these officials is North Tonawanda City Engineer Dale Marshall, who is aware of the problem.

Upon inspecting the house, Marshall concluded that the home was built too low in 1956, so the newly-installed sump pump never stops running. Not only that, but the water in the home has sulfur content, which is creating the smell, Marshall said.

The hydrogen sulfide levels in question do create a terrible smell, but they’re not dangerous, Marshall said.

“The levels read are not a health concern,” Marshall said. “But they are a nuisance concern. It smells, but it’s not going to kill anybody.”

The Niagara County Health Department monitored the air and took water samples, Marshall said.

Marshall and other nearby residents have spoken with Paul Dickey of the Niagara County Health Department on the issue. Dickey could not be reached for comment. Multiple phone messages were left for him during the past few days.

The problem can be remedied if the sump pump’s pipe is tied into a nearby city storm sewer, Marshall said. This way, the smell would never make its way to the surface. However, there is a question of who’s responsible for the fix. Is it the city or the homeowner?

The homeowner is an elderly woman who stays inside the house, according to the woman’s son-in-law, Norm Halberstadt. Halberstadt is well aware of the problem, and it could have been avoided with proper directions, he said.

According to Halberstadt, a city worker told him the water from the sump pump had to be forced out using a bubbler. The home’s pipes were originally tied into the nearby storm sewer, just like Marshall recommended, Halberstadt said.

If Halberstadt knew then what he knows now, he would have never paid more than $3,000 to do the new work, he said.

“We decided to make sure the house was in compliance in all ways,” Halberstadt said. “We thought we were in compliance. We did what they asked us to do.”

Halberstadt also maintains the sulfur does not have any ill health effects, as his mother-in-law bought the property more than 50 years ago. The home’s original owner, Halberstadt’s mother-in-law, is still alive at 88 years old.

“She’s had a lot of that sulfur odor,” Halberstadt said. “It would come and go. You could smell it in the house. The odor was not a health issue at all.”

Residents would like to believe what they’ve heard, but they’re still looking for some hard evidence. Manth believes a high incidence of cancer within the area could possibly be linked to the presence of hydrogen sulfide.

According to the Web site of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency, exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. High levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause a loss of consciousness and possibly death. There is no proof of hydrogen sulfide causing cancer in humans, though its ability to cause cancer in animals has not been studied thoroughly.

And so, Osborn, whose son endured tremendous jaw pain prior to his diagnosis, waits for a hard copy of the test results.

“I don’t want just answers,” Osborn said. “I want paper. Put it in front of me. It could be coincidence. But prove to me that it is.”

Contact reporter Phil Dzikiyat 693-1000, ext. 114.