(La Porte County, IN) - The BP refinery in Whiting is suspected of causing a smell of rotten eggs stretching into St. Joseph County and southwest Michigan Sunday.

 

LaPorte County HazMat Director Jeff Hamilton, who’s also a volunteer firefighter in Walkerton, said he wasn’t notified about the release of sulfur dioxide from the plant until he and other first responders, along with NIPSCO, responded for hours to complaints about natural gas leaks from utility customers.

 

Hamilton said a lot of complaints in LaPorte County started being received at roughly 1:30 p.m., slowing down, and then resuming at a higher volume at 8:30 p.m.

 

He said no gas leaks were found at any of the locations. Hamilton also revealed he didn’t learn about the source of the odor until he contacted the Indiana Department of Environmental Management last night.

 

IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed noted that an investigator from the agency will be going to the plant today to begin looking into the situation. Otherwise, the spokeman said that he wouldn’t have any information to release until probably this afternoon, when the investigation is expected to begin turning up some findings.

 

Last night, information about the source of the odor and cause thereof, blaming severe weather, were posted on Facebook by various public safety agencies in both states.

 

“BP's Whiting refinery experienced an operational disruption that triggered unplanned flaring of gases from their facility. BP Crews have been on site to manage the situation. Community monitoring has been ongoing throughout the day and BP advises they expect the situation to be resolved in the coming hours.  They further advise there is no danger to the community at this time,” per a post from the Porter County Emergency Management Agency.

 

Firefighters from Galien Township posted they responded to a complaint of a gas leak and didn’t learn until after an extensive investigation about the source, “which is causing the odor to be smelled across southern Berrien County.”

 

Coolspring Township Assistant Fire Chief Warren Smith said his department responded to eight complaints of gas leaks, which were also made in Michigan City and surrounding areas including Long Beach and Michiana Shores.

 

“It was a countywide problem,” he said.

 

Per Hamilton, sulfur dioxide was released from the plant due to problems the refinery was having regarding power outages.

 

“The power losses caused issues within their plant and they had to go with what is called flaring off, which put their plant in bypass. When the relief device was working it was putting out sulfur dioxide.  That is the smell everyone was smelling across several counties yesterday,” he said.

 

Hamilton said the rain and humidity making the air heavy kept the gas close to the ground as it was being carried by the winds across the area. Wind direction had a lot to do with the initial complaints in LaPorte County tapering off until resuming several hours later.

 

“It was just the way the wind was coming off the lake and the weather that was making whether we was getting it or not,” he said.

 

Hamilton asserted the amount of sulfur dioxide drifting over from the plant was enough to smell, but not enough to cause any health concerns. He said the gas, by the time it reached here, dissipated enough to the point that it wasn’t detected by detection meters. 

 

Hamilton also noted that there were also complaints about a rotten egg smell in Lake and Starke, counties along with communities such as Knox and Walkerton.

 

“Those are the ones we know about,” he said.