Foul Stench Plagues San Rafael Neigborhood

The stink from a nearby lagoon is so bad, residents of San Rafael's Spinnaker Point do not want to go outside or use their homes' decks, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

The smell -- a "pungent, rotten egg odor," according to the newspaper -- is "so bad" that air quality officials issued a warning to the property developer who owns the land, the newspaper reported.

But the smell remains.

The smell is from rotting bacteria, according to the newspaper. The lagoons do not have tidal flow and instead rely on rains to feed them. As the summer heat dried the lagoons, the water became stagnant and the bacteria rotted, creating the smell that is giving residents health problems like headaches, the newspaper reported.

"It smells like a sewer with dead algae on top," said Toni Albert, whose home on Bedford Cove is right next to the lagoon, according to the newspaper.

The Rockport Land Corp. of Petaluma owns the land. The company received a notice of violation from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on Sept. 10, according to reports.

There is a pipe that runs from the lagoon to the bay, but that's for draining water from the lagoon, not for water flow to prevent a stink.