# Rotten Fish Smell from a Leaking Water Main?



## jeb6294 (Nov 15, 2012)

I've been walking in the mornings and for a few days there was a distinct smell of rotten fish in the same spot. My thought was that some soldier had thrown out his dinner or something. Fast forward a few days later and there is water gushing down the ditch...a rather odd sight in Afghanistan. The water was coming from a hydrant in the exact spot where I had noticed the fish smell. Could that rotten fish smell have been from a leak in the water line at that hydrant?


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## MA_PE (Nov 15, 2012)

Is the hydrant somehow connected to the sewer lines. H2S gas can have a rotten egg/rotting fosh smell to it and it can build in a sewer line.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Nov 16, 2012)

Maybe the well is actually composed of spoiled meat.

Could some of the leachate from the septic field be getting into a crack in the line?

I'm trying to think here, that smell pretty much means sewage/sewer gas or something rotting.

Is it possible a rodent or something got into the pump house or treatment building, fried on a live wire, and is now causing odor issues?


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## Capt Worley PE (Nov 16, 2012)

I wonder if they add a scent to detect a leak like the natural gas folks do.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Nov 16, 2012)

Then you would be drinking stinky water.


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## jeb6294 (Nov 17, 2012)

There's no connection between the water and the sewer systems. I also went and checked the water tanks at the water plant but they just smell like well water. I'm wondering if there's something in the soil here that stinks when it gets saturated.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Nov 17, 2012)

Your dilemma kinda peaked my curiousity, so I googled 'stinky soil' and found this on a gardening forum.

/&gt;http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0622394319437.html

Sounds like it is saturated and went anaeorbic.


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