Don’t blame the dog.
That rotten smell isn’t coming from the garbage or a broken gas main. It’s a sea breeze of the undesirable kind.
According to the Air Quality Management District, the smell is the natural result of a number of things, but it seems to be emanating from the Salton Sea, carried by winds from the Imperial Valley to the Santa Clarita Valley. No part of our city is exempt from the foul smell, as the cloud moves across the area.
Along with the natural decaying of the Salton Sea, recent earthquakes in the area have shaken loose (and brought to the surface) much more chemical residue from irrigation, including selenium, a sulfur-like element and algae continues to decompose after a boom in plankton growth.
Contributing to the fetid stew is inflow of untreated water from the New River, which runs through northern Baja California, through Imperial Valley and dumps into the Salton Sea. The water contains both human and agricultural waste, which is not filtered or treated before it comes into California.
The smell was reported earlier in Pasadena and Glendale and seems to be moving in a westward direction.
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About 2,000 tonnes of selenium has been produced in 2011 worldwide, mostly in Germany (650 t), Japan (630 t), Belgium (200 t) and Russia (140 t), and the total reserves were estimated at 93,000 tonnes. These data however exclude two major producers, the United States and China. The price has been relatively stable during 2004–2010 at ~30 US dollars per pound (per 100-pound lot) but has increased to 65 $/lb in 2011. A previous sharp increase was observed in 2004 from 4–5 to 27 $/lb. The consumption in 2010 was divided as follows: metallurgy – 30%, glass manufacturing – 30%, agriculture – 10%, chemicals and pigments – 10%, electronics – 10%. China is the dominant consumer of selenium at 1,500–2,000 tonnes/year..
Just extract and sell the horrible smelling chemical to China.