Oil Islands Didn't Do "Burn-Off" On Night Of Latest "Mystery Stink" And Don't Do Burn-Offs At All, Oxy-LB Official Tells LBREPORT.com

LBREPORT.com -- which was first (again) with the story when it happened -- accurately reported that the source and composition of the odor was then and remains for now undetermined.

LBREPORT.com has reported in detail on previous "mystery stinks" and followed-up the day after on this latest incident. We learned that in addition to the roughly 20 calls received by LBFD, the LB Gas Dept. received roughly 40 calls, and AQMD received about 12 calls reporting the odor (variously described on social networks and in emails as a refinery type or gas type smell.)

SCAQMD Media Relations Manager Sam Atwood tells LBREPORT.com via email:

...We dispatched a standby, after-hours inspector who arrived in the Belmont Shore area around 11 p.m. He did not detect any odors in that area nor along Ocean Avenue. Due to the late hour several of the complainants were not available to meet with our inspector. However he did meet with one complainant who described the odor as smelling like natural gas.
We do have standby inspectors on call after hours as well as on weekends, so should the odor recur this weekend and we receive complaints, we will again respond to them.

LBFD dispatched Engine 14 which couldn't find a source. Kevin Untener, Superintendent-Operations for the Long Beach Gas & Oil Dept., provided LBREPORT.com with the agency's procedure for investigating outside odor calls:

[LB Gas/Oil Supt-Operations email text] Long Beach Gas and Oil (LBGO) received approximately 40 calls last night [Sept. 11] between the hours of 10:30 and 11:30 PM regarding an odor outside resembling natural gas. LBGO sent a field representative to investigate and it was determined not to be natural gas by way of sniff test and electronic sniff test.
LBGO's procedure in these types of instances depends on the volume of calls, area of origin and direction of odor by way of tracking from calls received. LBGO always sends a field representative to investigate and help determine if the odor is natural gas or not.
If the odor is not natural gas, LBGO informs callers of the determination and advises them to call the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) if they desire to report the odor. LBGO notifies the SCAQMD after determining it is not natural gas.
LBGO also places a message on its phone system informing callers of the situation, giving SCAQMD’s number and other information. LBGO, at times, will find it necessary to call Long Beach Fire Department and/or local oil and gas production sites in order to inform or gain information in its investigation.
LBGO monitors its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system 24/7. This program allows LBGO to monitor gas system pressure and quality. LBGO uses this information in its investigations of these incidences as well.

When the odor was present, LBREPORT.com readers uploaded the following reports and comments on on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lbreport):

...[S]tinks in Los Altos...had to close all the windows and doors
I am smelling it in the plaza by Marshall Middle School!
Yep, smelled it at about 10:15 pm at 2nd & Covina. Tar-like odor wafted into our windows for about 10 minutes, then was gone outside but lingered in our apartment for an hour as we tried to go to sleep. Gave my wife a splitting headache which eventually subsided.
It was in Alamitos Heights, as well. Wasn't a gas leak.
This is definitely a recurring problem in this city, and I've yet to hear a satisfactory explanation of what's causing it, despite having reported it.
It is in Alamitos Heights and it smells like roofing tar.
It was horrible over here, Reah. Don't smell it anymore. Thank God.
Was horrible in the Shore around 9:30 [pm]

In direct email to LBREPORT.com: "Serious 'refinery' smell in Belmont Shore. Stifling...It was extra strong."

Justin Rudd's "LongBeachCalif" Facebook page also received multiple dispatches (excerpts below):

...I hope the unidentified odor that's all over the shore and other parts of LB is non toxic.
This isn't a normal smell. Never smelled anything like it before and I grew up in the 80s with smog alerts and brown sky.
I am off of 4th and Temple and I smelled something burning a few hours ago myself. Really strong and close. I don't consider myself one of *those* people either, but a smell is a smell. And it's especially troubling on a really hot day. I also closed my windows but I could still smell it. If you find out what caught fire, let us know.'
My neighbors and I smelled it too. We live close to Rubios off of 2nd. We were outside and it came on real strong out of no where....
I got through to the gas company. They checked it out and it's not natural gas which is good. They said the smell will go away soon.
I smell gas on Park, fire truck is out on Park now near 2nd St
I'm off Toledo too. I hope its non toxic.
Yes we smell it on Pomona and the Toledo. It's making me feel sick.
Terrible smell here in the shore. The gas co, of course, says "it's nothing".
We were forced out of our homes with the same stench a few months ago. Got the same line. Burn off. I don't believe them. It was nauseating. And scary. It came on suddenly and was overwhelming.
It was stronger inside the house/ everyone in the neighborhood was outside concerned.
I smell something like oil burning or gas
[I]t's awful off broadway too!
I smell it in the Los Altos area also. Smells like gas.
Smells like rotten eggs or natural gas near me in the shore.
Strong gas smell in shore too
Smells like gas!
We're in Alamitos Heights and it's strong over here, as well.

Residents have on several occasions reported similar area odors and (along with LBREPORT.com) have not received definitive answers from either the South Coast Air Quality Management District (non-elected board governs the agency whose duties include identifying and regulating regional air pollutants) or the City of Long Beach (elected City Council governs non-elected staff; all cities' responsibilities include protecting public health and safety) as to what substance(s) Long Beach residents/families were breathing and from where it came.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com:

On May 17, 2014, residents reported an area odor (mainly affecting shoreline areas east of downtown extending inland for about a mile or more.) Some examples of what our readers said:

We live on 700 block of Gaviota. It was so bad, I had to close the front door and some windows. The worst of it was between 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m."
3rd/Orange: "It's the same horrible petroleum stink we had back in March, also on a weekend. I don't think it's a coincidence that this always happens on the weekend..."
Broadway & Falcon; "Smells like natural gas."
"I smelled it in Signal Hill."
"Yep, up in Wrigley."
"I'm downtown 3rd & Atlantic and I don't smell it; usually we get it real heavy here.
"I smelled it at LBCC (PCC campus.)

At early afternoon, LBFD PIO Will Nash told LBREPORT.com that its dispatch center had received a number of calls reporting the area odor. SCAQMD, the region's air quality agency, takes voice mail reports during non-office hours; on previous occasions, it's dispatched personnel after the odor has disappeared, then said it couldn't identify the source.

On March 16, 2014, Long Beach residents reported an intense odor across a fairly wide portion of Long Beach from mainly downtown to Cherry Ave. extending roughly from the shore to about PCH. The South Coast Air Quality Management District told LBREPORT.com on Mar. 18 (the agency's first open business day of the work week) that it received 89 odor complaints primarily from downtown Long Beach, mostly on Sunday with a few on Monday.

"Most residents complained of very strong petroleum-type odors," emailed Sam Atwood, SCAQMD Media Relations Manager. "We sent several inspectors on Sunday in response to the complaints.

So...what were Long Beach residents breathing? "Inspectors did detect the odor and investigated several potential sources but ultimately were not able to track it to a source. We are still evaluating information relating to this odor event," SCAQMD told LBREPORT.com at the time.

An LBREPORT.com reader in the Orange/4th St. area told us shortly before 9:00 p.m., "It has smelled for three hours now. I left home to get away from it, drove back and it still smells, left again. In Seal Beach now, doesn't smell here. Considering a hotel room, it is THAT bad."...

Justin Rudd's LongBeachCalif Facebook page accumulated over 80 comments about the Mar. 16, 2014 incident, variously describing the smell as similar to a hair permanent solution, or roof tar, or asphalt, or petroleum-like...and many of them described the odor as intense. Below are some excerpts form Justin Rudd's LongBeachCalif Facebook page:

Anyone know what the tar-like smell is?...Cherry/3rd St area...
Smells like burnt hair over here in Naples.
Super strong on 4th and redondo
I smell it at 7th and pacific too. It's really bad over here. It's so hot we need to open the window but the air is too bad to breathe in. So it's 90 degrees in our apartment and there is nothing we can do about it
I thought maybe someone was crazy enough to tar their roof in this heat. Smells awful here too...Alamitos & 5th.
Smells like sulfur
I smelled that awful odor when I got to 3rd and Alamitos
I don't know, but over here, it smell's like burning Asphalt or Rubber, oil maybe?
We thought it smelled like perm solution, too!
Smells bad by Cesar Chavez park
The smell won't leave our apartment now. Giving us all migraines. Cherry and 1st (Bixby Park) been smelling for about 4.5 hours now.
2nd and kennebeck, smelling it too...
Daisy and 10th. Gave us all a migraine
Ocean & Pine. I smell it, too...
Yep down here on 7th and atl it stinks bad
Yes me too I'm on 8th and magnolia.
Nasty smellin at long Beach blvd and first
Real bad at 3rd and Alamitos! Headache and allergies
I smelled it earlier around PCH/Redondo.
It had permeated inside the whole apt had to shut the Windows which made my headache and nausea only worse trapping the heat in...I'm still not feeling good....
Smells like sulfur to me too at 10th & Pine. Or burnt rubber...
It is over by 4th and Orange too.
I have smelled it often, 4th and chestnut, but never knew what it was.
OMG it's making me sick!
Ocean and Belmont...same thing all day.
7th and Walnut. Really strong at 5:00 pm...
It's horrible! I'm on 3rd and Cherry
It smells like tar downtown. i thought it was a street issue.
Really bad on 7th and Magnolia
15th and Elm the smell was nauseating...smelled like sulfur pretty bad
5th and junipero it's bad!
I smelled it on 7th/Ximeno as well
I'm at the Villages and it is really bad out here!
I smell it too...Alamitos and 1st
I live on Gladys and 7Th and can smell it here. what is it?
It's horrible.. I thought my condo was in fire..woke me up from my nap!!
I was wondering what was that burning smell

On June 29, 2013 an area odor -- which smelled more like natural gas -- was felt so intensely that the Long Beach Gas Dept. put a recorded message on its telephone line indicating it had received a "high volume" of calls on the matter. AQMD later said it didn't know what it was, what it contained or from where it came. Two days later on July 2, 2013, a neighborhood in the southern central area of Long Beach reported a second stink (Tues. July 2) in the vicinity of Redondo Ave. at about 3rd and 4th Sts.

On Oct. 25, 2012, residents of the Belmont Shore/ELB area variously reported a smell similar to rotten eggs or natural gas. AQMD said it received roughly 105 calls clustered mainly in Belmont Shore and areas slightly inland [into ELB].

On September 18, 2011, a number of LBREPORT.com readers in SE and Eastern Long Beach reported smelling a strong odor, described as a natural gas type smell, from the 1 p.m. hour into at least the 3 p.m. hour.

Further as we learn it on LBREPORT.com.