Strong sulfur odors reported in the Rouen agglomeration
Residents, embarrassed, were numerous to complain of smells of sulfur on Saturday May 21, 2022 in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) and in neighboring municipalities. An investigation is opened.
Since the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen, many residents of the Seine-Maritime department have detected and then reported the slightest suspicious smell.
This is how on Saturday May 21, 2022, the seinomarin firefighters received at the switchboard of 18 a dozen calls during the morning for “atmospheric odors”. But, in the absence of victims and emergency cases, the SDIS 76 did not carry out an intervention.
The presence of these odors was also reported on the “Odo” platform set up in September 2019 by the Atmo-Normandy association.
Residents of Yainville, Duclair, Canteleu, Maromme, Déville-lès-Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, Rouen, Mesnil-Esnard and Saint-Martin-du-Vivier testified, between 8.30 a.m. and 3 p.m., to have detected (continuously ) “annoying” and even “very annoying” odors.
These odors are described, in Déville-lès-Rouen and Maromme as those of sewage and excrement.
Elsewhere, the inhabitants evoke a sulfur smell, rotten eggs, hydrocarbons or even gas…
Is it a natural phenomenon, a release from the factory that would have remained in the air for lack of wind, or the consequence of an industrial accident?
Atmo-Normandie, one of whose missions is the monitoring of air quality in Normandy, indicates that the reports of odors referenced in the Seine valley from 8:30 a.m. on May 21, 2022 “occurred when the wind conditions were almost nil, with a westerly influence” and “research is underway on the origin of the odors”.
In addition, Atmo-Normandie specifies that it has “inform the State services of the number of reports that have taken place.” On May 21, the Seine-Maritime prefecture confirmed to our colleagues from Actu.fr that an investigation was underway by the Regional Department for the Environment (DREAL) to carry out “investigations to find out the origin of odors whose source has not yet been identified.”
After the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen in September 2019, another air pollution case had sparked controversy. On Saturday January 2, 2021, residents had reported embarrassing smells of hydrocarbons.
The prefecture of Seine-Maritime had initially mentioned the fires of private chimneys, heating with wood and “the burning of gift wrap” as the probable source of the origin of the odors…
But a few days later, and following a press release from the CGT union, it was discovered that the release of odors was the consequence of an industrial incident in a factory in the Rouen conurbation.
The public prosecutor had opened an investigation and we learned that a malfunction had occurred in the premises of the Multisol company with overheating in a tank. An incident that had not been reported to the authorities.