Govt says gas-like odour affecting Gib likely originated in Spain

Thousands of residents and tourists on the Westside and Upper Town were besieged with a gas-like smell on Thursday morning causing headaches and nausea as well as vomiting, with the Gibraltar Government stating the wind from Spain was the source.
The Government said wind conditions [blowing from Spain toward Gibraltar] suggest the smell likely originated outside Gibraltar rather than from local port or fuel operations, which it said were confirmed to be normal.
Reports from residents in the area were made to both the Environmental Agency and Environmental Safety Group throughout the morning.

The ESG expressed concern having received calls that described the “very strong, gas-like, bunkering smells” as “overwhelming and scary”.

Cruise ship tourists were seen coughing and holding their noses.

One resident told the Chronicle: “I suffer with chronic migraines that are made worse with certain smells. I live in Watergardens and woke up at around 6am with really bad nausea and threw up twice but I did not register the weird smell at the time.”

“When I woke up for work in the morning my head was really hurting and I threw up again.”

She added that this was when she noticed the smell and heard others complaining about it too.

In response to Chronicle questions, the Government said that the Environmental Agency received multiple odour complaints from different parts of Gibraltar and Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) detected odours at several locations with no single localised source identified.

“The Gibraltar Port Authority has confirmed to us that the winds were north‑westerly to westerly, meaning air was blowing from Spain towards Gibraltar,” the Government spokesperson said.

“Port operations have been verified as normal, with bunkering activity limited.”

“EHOs visited the port area and Peninsula Petroleum has confirmed that they have not offloaded fuel to vessels.”

“The DPC‑approved project to demolish the extension jetty and to reroute the fuel lines have not yet begun.”

“Automative gas oil was received this morning via truck, which is transferred directly into underground pipelines, reducing the likelihood of vapour escape from surface equipment,” the spokesperson added.

According to the Government, given the wide geographic spread of complaints and the prevailing wind direction, the evidence did not support a localised emission within Gibraltar and instead pointed to an upwind regional source.

The Government is also reviewing data from Gibraltar’s air quality monitoring network to confirm whether any pollutant levels changed during the period of complaints.

The website states that nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 and PM1O particles at both the North Mole and Harbour Views monitoring stations have low recording for the past 24 hours, with most being the lowest. However, sulphur dioxide is not monitored by these stations.

The ESG said it was most concerned to have received multiple reports from residents around Gibraltar regarding heavy air pollution.

“Described as very strong, gas-like, bunkering smells, overwhelming and scary,” said the ESG spokesperson.

The ESG made its own enquiries with the authorities who “have been trying to trace the source throughout the day”.

“The smell was detected at Europa Mews, Upper Town, Harbour Views, Waterport and Mons Calpe Mews, as well as comprehensive schools all being affected, some for long periods of time,” the group said.

“The group hopes that a pollution incident of this duration, covering such a wide area will be pinned down to an actual activity or incident,” it added, before the Government stated it was due to winds from Spain.

“Gibraltar handles a large volume of fuel both for its operational needs as well as for commercial purposes.”

“The ESG trusts that every effort is continuously being made to ensure that all local handling is done to highest standards thus enabling any incident of this type to either be quickly identified, and polluter fined, or, ruled out as having occurred in Gibraltar.”

“We believe the community deserves to know what caused such pollution on the Rock today and await further answers from the Port and our authorities.”