Earlier this month, Roosevelt Island Twitterverse reported:
Does @RIOCny Public Safety Department or President @SheltonHaynes3 know anything about a turpentine smell overwhelming some areas of Roosevelt Island being reported by residents?
Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) September 5, 2020
Motorgate Garage parking deck. I called 311 and they said they would send someone to have a look. This is the second evening this has happened this week. pic.twitter.com/YsGJF5e8DQ
J Robert Burgoyne (@jrobertburgoyne) September 5, 2020
Thanks for flagging this, it’s really bad. This has been happening on and off for almost a year now, we really need answers on this.
Mta sucks (@Mtasucks1) September 5, 2020
Early Friday morning while out for a walk, smelled the same odor spewed, with loud hissing, from a gasket-like object embedded in the sidewalk along the riverside by the parking garage.
Beth Iskander (@BIskander) September 7, 2020
I am pretty sure this is what I smelled about a week or two ago, I think I was near the PSD office or a bit farther north on Main St (on the East side of the street). Once I smelled it, it was immediately hard to breathe and my throat started to burn. Pretty awful…
Alane Suhr (@alsuhr) September 5, 2020
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp ( RIOC ) Acting President Shelton Haynes asked:
I was just made away of your social media inquiry. PSD has not had any complaints come in about an odor but we would like to know where specifically there has been a smell so we can investigate.
I followed up yesteday asking Mr Haynes and RIOC Public Safety Department Chief Kevin Brown:
Did RIOC ever discover what was the turpentine like smell that residents reported earlier this month. Report of smell is continuing.
@NYCMayorsOffice @NBCNewYork #rooseveltisland now regularly enduring fumes of something that smells like strong turpentine & cannot get any city agency to check this out. #airpollution #luxurycity #powerplantpollution #nyctourism
Mta sucks (@Mtasucks1) September 22, 2020
It may just be MTBE, a gasoline additive that’s a carcinogen and may be leaking out of the barges moored at the Ravenswood #powerplant
Mta sucks (@Mtasucks1) September 22, 2020
RIOC PSD Chief Kevin Brown replied:
PSD investigated the complaint of the smell the evening when the first complaint came in to our office.
PSD did not discover where this smell may have come from. PSD has not gotten any further complaints about the smell. Officers canvassed areas by the Motorgate and seawalls. No unusual, overwhelming smell was noticed by officers, just the regular smell that comes from the river, fishy, unpleasant. No chemical smells.
UPDATE 8:10 PM – Roosevelt Island residents add: