The foul funk that has plagued the area since the weekend may be caused by, well, fowl.
Officials said Wednesday that they now think loads of chicken manure could be to blame.
Jeff Darley, a program manager at the Augusta office of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said the noxious odors probably wafted up from manure being spread over farmers' fields in Georgia and South Carolina.
Pam Tucker, the director of the Columbia County Emergency Services department, said a farmer in east Augusta told a Columbia County official he and other farmers in the area had received several truckloads of chicken manure a week ago to spread over their fields.
"That just made more sense than anything else (as being the cause),'' Mrs. Tucker said.
Mrs. Tucker's reports came after Richmond County officials said this week that construction in Columbia County at Reed Creek might have been the source.
Reports to her office of the stink in the air, she said, began Saturday and continued through Tuesday. Richmond County dispatchers fielded numerous calls about the odor.
Augusta authorities sent out crews and sheriff's deputies, but their search was fruitless.
Augusta Utilities crews found no sewer leakages, and the Augusta-Richmond County Emergency Management Agency couldn't pin blame on a chemical release.
Mrs. Tucker said that although the odor wasn't harmful to residents, the smell did cause a few arguments.
"It even created some domestic disputes of some people accusing other people's dogs of doing things,'' she said.
Mr. Darley said the smell should dissipate.
He said it wasn't dangerous, but "it's a concern because it's a nuisance."
In the end, Mrs. Tucker said, the smell mostly made people wonder if they had stepped in something.
"People have been checking their shoes all over town," she said.
Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or Preston Sparks at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115.
Columbia County Emergency Services Director Pam Tucker said manure makes the most sense in this case.
