Smelly but safe PG&E additive turns stomachs

An extra dosage of "rotten egg" smell added to Northern California's natural gas supply left many with a bad taste in their mouths Wednesday night.

[Intense]

It was bad

[Hoddie]

It was really bad right near Gomes house. We thought it was coming from inside her house. Are they sure it is from PGE, it really smells more like her.

[VallejoRob]

The smell was faint in my house, near Highland elementary, but we searched for a source for about half an hour before giving-up. Something to note, your ability to smell the odorant, methyl mercaptan, decreases the longer you breathe it. So it first seems strong, but then you can't smell it after a while, which makes leak detection very difficult.

[Cedric]

I listen to a radio frequency scanner. Last Wednesday night, I heard many request for a Vacaville Fire Department response to an odor of natural gas.

One of the fire personal mentioned that perhaps this was due to the upgrade of the gas meters by PG $ E (like that $?). It wasn't, but that's fine.

I'm glad to see that we have such professionals that think beyond a single incident and note the possibilities of something a miss in general. We'll be needing this when terrorism grows worse, under Obama(D).

PG $ E, you mentioned why this was happening, but not why an excessive amount of mercaptan was used. Was this due to a stupid employee or an intoxicated employee?