The source of the mysterious manure-like funk that wafted through parts of Downtown and the West Side of Vancouver on Thursday was possibly a spike in fecal coliform in the east side of False Creek.
“There appears to be some kind of sewage leak — that is certainly what it smells like,” said Gavin Wilson, a spokesman with Vancouver Coastal Health.
Health workers and city engineers were working to determine the source of a high coliform count at one spot in East False Creek.
The unpleasant, elusive odour sparked a number of complaints before noon to the Metro Vancouver regional district, which monitors air quality in the Lower Mainland.
Metro’s air quality manager Ray Robb said investigators responded to the complaints, but in many cases the smell was gone by the time they arrived.
Robb said it was hard to tell if it was one major odour, plus several isolated odours.
