An unpleasant odour described by residents across the city as smelling like sulphur, natural gas, rotten eggs, sewage or hot asphalt, depending on which part of the city people were in, led to a flurry of social media posts Saturday and prompted the City of Cambridge to investigate.
The city called in the Ministry of the Environment after tweeting Saturday morning it was "aware of reports of a strong odor being detected in the West Cambridge area."
At the time, the city said they believed it was being caused by a cleaning procedure at one of the area businesses.
"Staff are looking into the situation and more information will be shared as soon as it's available."
But all the city shared in a follow up tweet was that the ministry had completed its assessment and determined the odour was no threat to public safety since it was produced by "a non-toxic substance."
UPDATE: Ministry of Env. has completed their assessment and determined that the odor was caused by a non-toxic substance. There was no threat to public safety. https://t.co/fUhNVNFJW8
— City of Cambridge (@cityofcambridge) October 29, 2022
Many residents took to Twitter to demand more answers as the odour was detected in various parts of the city, not just West Galt.
As of Sunday morning, the smell was back in some parts of the city with many speculating about the source and suggesting it was coming from the north end, possibly Breslau.
But people living in Hespeler said they didn't smell anything while some in south Cambridge said the odour was strong there.
In Preston, some residents said it smelled like natural gas, while others said they couldn't smell anything.
More to come
