CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The company responsible for a natural gas odor that was reported across Charlotte on July 14 violated Mecklenburg County's 'objectionable odor rule,' the county confirmed Monday.
In a statement, Legacy Environmental Services said it was "informed of a Notice of Objectionable Odor from Mecklenburg County Air Quality."
The company said it is cooperating with the county's ongoing investigation.
In a tweet, Piedmont Natural Gas said the smell was due to an unintentional release of mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to give it the distinctive smell of rotten eggs. Mercaptan is what makes a natural gas leak easier to detect.
While officials later determined no natural gas was leaked, the odor was observed in Charlotte neighborhoods including NoDa, Uptown and South End. Out of an abundance of caution prompted by fears of an actual gas leak, multiple buildings in Uptown Charlotte were evacuated. Wells Fargo notified employees that they would be allowed to work from home for the remainder of the day.
Charlotte city officials received so many 911 calls about a possible gas leak that they sent an emergency alert to cellphones advising people to not call 911 to report the smell.
WCNC Charlotte Chief Meteorologist Brad Panovich confirmed the odor was exaggerated by a weather event called an inversion, which is when a layer of warm, dense air traps everything underneath it, including pollution, smoke, fog, and smell. That would also include natural gas, which is lighter than air and is naturally odorless.
The leak occurred when Legacy Environmental Services destroyed mercaptan tanks that were mistakenly reported as being empty, according to officials.