Aug. 11, 2000
Wasatch Front residents awoke this morning to what is becoming an all too famililar stink.
The smell was moderate to strong, depending on where you live.
What was the recipe this time around?
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reports.
You wouldn't have wanted to "nose" around early this morning. The air across the valley was pretty pungent.
"Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."
It's not Shakespeare, just our own brew again on the Great Salt Lake.
Stinking gaseous bubbles from decaying plant life "burped" as winds about 18 miles per hour stirred up the pot between 2:00 and 4:00 this morning.
Ed Yeates, Science Specialist: "LAKE EXPERT WALLY GYWNN WITH THE UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SAYS OUT HERE WITH THE WIND AND THE SALINITY LEVELS, IT WAS JUST ANOTHER REPEAT PERFORMANCE."
"IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH HYDROGEN SULFIDE TO BE ABLE TO SMELL IT."
In fact, too much hydrogen sulfide in the air can make people downright sick, as some theorize happened a year ago when many in the downtown area were treated for nausea at local hospitals.
Most of the time, the decaying gunk is shielded under water. But when the waves waffle a bit, up it comes to release its horrific smell.
The State Department of Environmental Quality says this time, as winds shifted, the lake stink appears to have mixed with a kind of a burned soil smell - leftover from of our wildfires.
Brewing on your stovetop, perhaps you might describe the odor as sort of a rotten egg, poo-poo, charred juniper and sage tea smell.
Wally Gwynn and other researchers believe as the salinity in the lake continues to diminish, we can expect to smell more.
WALLY GWYNN / UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURGEY: "AND I THINK THAT WITH THAT LONG TERM, I THINK WE COULD SEE INCREASING INCIDENCES OF LAKE STINK."
