An odor of natural gas reported Thursday morning in Santa Monica and parts of West Los Angeles came from “a brief period of venting” that occurred during planned maintenance, according to the Southern California Gas Co.
“The release didn’t present a health or safety risk to the community,” according to a statement from Southern California Gas Co. “We responded to odor reports to confirm there were no unsafe conditions at each location.”
Natural gas is odorless but for safety reasons a putrid-smelling agent called mercaptan is added to aid in leak detection.
–City News Service