{"id":140784,"date":"2026-02-21T05:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140784\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:07:07","slug":"unbearable-stench-forces-staten-island-residents-to-evacuate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140784\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbearable stench forces Staten Island residents to evacuate"},"content":{"rendered":"

BULLS HEAD, Staten Island (PIX11) \u2014 Residents in the Bulls Head section of Staten Island say a foul odor has made some homes nearly unlivable for months.<\/p>\n

Overcome with emotion, Deborah Phelps-Seda said the odor problem has been persistent since early December and has made daily life unbearable for her and her children.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just want this nightmare to be over,\u201d said Phelps-Seda. \u201cI really just want this to be over.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cIt literally smells like rotten eggs or rotten broccoli.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the smell has, at times, forced her to stay in a hotel or with family. With a son who has asthma, she\u2019s especially worried about air quality and whether the foul odor poses safety risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so frustrated, and I cry a lot about it because as a mother, you feel helpless,\u201d Phelps-Seda said. \u201cHow do I protect my children?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her neighbor, Amity Nigro, said her family has also evacuated multiple times. The residents have been trying to get to the bottom of where the strong stench is coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in the shower at one point, it was like I was showering in a sewer,\u201d Nigro said.<\/p>\n

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She added, \u201cMy neighbor downstairs, Deb, called the fire department, and they tested. So, we knew it wasn\u2019t anything within the household.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York City Department of Sanitation tells PIX 11 News it does not believe any of its facilities are the source of the odor and that its operations would not produce the type of smell residents are reporting.<\/p>\n

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement, \u201cCrews inspected and cleaned the sewers at Merrill and Graham Avenues and found all infrastructure to be operating as intended. We have also installed filtration devices in nearby sewer manholes to help reduce odors. DEP is currently monitoring the situation through wastewater and air sampling, and our investigation into the cause remains ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Councilman David Carr, National Grid has ruled out a gas leak. He\u2019s now calling on the city\u2019s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to join DEP in the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they can\u2019t necessarily help figure out the cause of the problem, maybe they can give an assessment as to the actual public health impacts that may be happening here,\u201d said Carr.<\/p>\n

As the smell continues to linger, residents said they\u2019re desperate for answers and calling for a solution.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BULLS HEAD, Staten Island (PIX11) \u2014 Residents in the Bulls Head section of Staten Island say a foul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[59463,59460,9,24,63,59462,59461,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-140784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-amity-nigro","tag-deborah-phelps-seda","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-odor-problem","tag-phelps-seda","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}