STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It was just after 10 a.m. on Friday when my phone rang.
Deborah Phelps-Seda had left me a message. I had interviewed the Bulls Head mom of two earlier this week about a recurring sewer-like smell that had been plaguing her and other residents on her Merrill Avenue block.
She said she had been woken up at 3 a.m. by the disgusting odor. And it was bad. The family was planning on leaving the home for the day again to escape it.
Curious to experience her plight firsthand, I shifted assignments and went to Merrill Avenue, a street I had visited two times earlier in the week.
Advance/SILive.com reporter Nicolette Cavallaro visited the community to document the sewage-like smell that has caused residents to evacuate their homes.(Advance/SILive.com|Nicolette Cavallaro)
When I approached her multifamily home, Deborah greeted me outside, sharing that it was her son’s birthday, and they weren’t going to celebrate it at home due to the intense odor.
“I went inside their room this morning, and it smelled,” she told me while standing by the front steps of the home. “Not like a boys’ room smell, but like a sewage smell.”
She also recounted her daily effort to mask the smell, by constantly bleaching her restroom and kitchen and keeping air fresheners going at all hours.
This approach, however, has had concerning outcomes for her son, who suffers from asthma.
“He’s coughing more now, I’ve noticed. The air fresheners and the smell, it’s not good for his breathing,” she told me, just as the wind pushed another intense wave of the rotten egg-like scent to us.
In front of her home, which is located between Graham Avenue and Arlene Street, the smell was particularly strong, leaving me feeling at times as if I was choking on the thick, musty air.
Her neighbor, who had also contacted the Advance/SILive.com earlier in the week to share her own experience living with the odor, came downstairs to greet me, just as the Phelps‑Seda family was preparing to leave.
“You know when she starts to smell it,” the resident shared with me, referring to Phelps-Seda. “It’s not too long until it’s with me; it’s coming for me next.”
Both women, who had been living out of suitcases and relying on Febreeze bottles for months, seemed to have reached their breaking point with the situation.
“I’ve been asking for help, for resources for months,” Phelps‑Seda said. “My next step is to leave, is to move.”
I took some time to walk down the avenue, closer to the city parkland and swamp area that borders the usually pleasant neighborhood. The closer I walked to Graham Avenue, the more intense the odor became.
My eyes began to water, and I used my scarf to cover my lower face, in hopes of lessening the overpowering and putrid scent.
Every strong breeze and intermittent rainfall became a sign of what was to come, a sickening smell that reminded me of an old, decaying trash pile or a gas leak. The puddles of water that had started to accumulate near the corners of the cracked sidewalk and lowered pavement were hot spots, with fumes so strong that I had to turn away in fear of nausea.
Advance/SILive.com reporter Nicolette Cavallaro visited the community to document the sewage-like smell that has caused residents to evacuate their homes.(Advance/SILive.com|Nicolette Cavallaro)
At one point during my walk, I had to retreat to my car — the smells near some of the maintenance holes were distinctly fierce and rancid, making my contact lenses burn.
After using eye solution, I took one last slightly painful lap around the community.
There were some remnants of the support Phelps‑Seda and her neighbors had requested: a few scattered Department of Environmental Protection cones, polished, recently cleaned street sewer drains and a lone Department of Sanitation car.
But as the putrid sewage aroma began seeping into my winter coat and sweater and a smell-induced headache began to settle in, it all seemed inadequate.