NEW HAVEN — Some residents on Wooster Street woke up to a strong chemical odor Thursday, which they described as smelling like permanent marker.
The smell was the result of a project to line century-old brick sewer lines with a resin material, according to Tom Bronczyk, project engineer for Insituform Technologies. He said the smell was from styrene used in the resin.
Insituform is doing the work for the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority on Olive, Wooster, Jefferson and Court streets and Grand Avenue.
While most of the work was performed overnight, there was still a strong smell inside the lower three floors of a Wooster Street building Thursday afternoon. “The stairwell going into our building makes me want to throw up still,” said Corey Armstrong. “There’s no windows; there’s no ventilation.”
Armstrong lives on the second floor and said she removed her three small children from the front room of her apartment, where the smell was strongest.
“We go from manhole to manhole and insert a liner. It kind of puts like a PVC pipe inside the existing pipe,” Bronczyk said. “Styrene is what you’re smelling and it seems like you might have an issue with the … sewer trap, the plumbing trap in the basement.”
He said if the trap is dry it could cause the odor to rise into a building. A notice on the building had warned that there might be an odor and that pouring water down the drains would help reduce it.
“I tried that and it didn’t work,” said Abigayl Severn, a first-floor resident. She said she had spent the night elsewhere because the notice said to limit water use and she smelled the styrene when she returned home at 8 a.m.
Anna Barry, who lives on the third floor, said the residents at first thought they smelled gas. “We all cleared out of the building. The gas company came and checked it and they said it’s not gas but it’s this super-strong smell,” she said. “It’s not on the street. It’s definitely within the building.”
Barry said the residents reported the issue on SeeClickFix, a website that is used for reporting concerns. A comment left by Ricardo Ceballos, a project engineer with the WPCA, said, “The positive is that those sewers were built in the 1870s and those are now good as new, ready to serve our community for the next 100 years.”
Bronczyk said the styrene is not a danger to health. It is listed on the Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services federal public health agency).
“It’s an unusual smell, not harmful,” Bronczyk said. “Our guys work with it every day.”
According to an Insituform information sheet, “Some people are more sensitive to these odors. Common symptoms of exposure to the levels of styrene typically produced by the sewer rehabilitation process include headache, nausea, dizziness, and lightheadedness. These symptoms will likely go away after the exposure ends and the person is allowed to get some fresh air. If you experience a feeling of headache, nausea, dizziness, or lightheadedness, seek fresh air immediately. If these symptoms persist, seek medical attention.”
edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
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