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unfortunate
A city in America can't figure out why it smells like cat pee
Smelly cat, smelly cat, it’s not your fault.
ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICIALS FROM Pennsylvania can’t explain why residents of one city thought part of their town smelled like cat urine last year.
The New Castle News reports that a Department of Environmental Protection report into the issue was inconclusive.
“It’s been a year since a noxious, cat urine-like odor (sic) assaulted the nostrils of New Castle residents,” the newspaper recalls.
The department says it’s likely that some kind of waste containing mesityl oxide mixed with some kind of sulfur compound to create the smell.
However, air samples and testing of substances at the city’s sewage treatment plant didn’t turn up a source of the substances.
Mesityl oxide is used in paint removers, as a solvent and in insect repellents.
New Castle is located about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The city first contacted Pennsylvania environmental officials about the smell in October 2014.
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