What's That Smell? Some CT Residents Complain Of An 'Oily Rain'

CONNECTICUT — An unusual soot-like residue that has accumulated on many Connecticut cars Friday morning has residents cleaning their windshields, scratching their heads and checking Ohio headlines.

On the internet, Connecticut Redditors complained about an "oily rain" and "bleachy," "burnt plastic" atmospheric smells, "like matches."

But Ryan Stauffer, a NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center scientist who studies air pollution and ozone, tweeted there is no reason for alarm.

Although the culprit hails from the Midwest, the source is nowhere near East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailment has caused an environmental crisis.

Instead, Oklahoma is to blame, according to the scientist:

"This storm kicked up and transported a huge amount of dust from Oklahoma earlier this week. No cause for concern!"

That analysis lines up with a statement issued Monday by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, advising that the agency did not anticipate any blowback from the Ohio catastrophe.

On Friday afternoon, DEEP officials issued a statement confirming the agency was "aware of local reports from this morning regarding 'sooty' matter on parked cars and have not been able to determine any singular source, such as a forest fire, power plant, or transportation-related emissions, that would cause this."

But that hasn't stopped the internet from internetting. The Reddit thread, titled "So, uh, is this Ohio ash toxic? Is our water safe?" had reached 329 posts shortly after noon on Friday, with some Redditors blaming burning vinyl chloride from the Ohio derailment, dust kicked up from local construction, and, of course, the Trump Administration.

Readers interested in Connecticut’s air quality monitoring network monitoring can visit the DEEP's Air Monitoring Network. The federal Environmental Protection Auditory's ongoing air monitoring efforts in and around East Palestine, OH, are being tracked online here: Site Profile - East Palestine Train Derailment - EPA OSC Response.