Odor accusation upsets N.J.

KEARNY, N.J. -- Like the ex-con who becomes the usual suspect when things go wrong, New Jersey is an easy target for blame when things smell bad.\nThere's no proof that the stinky odor that hung over Manhattan on Monday came from neighboring New Jersey -- officials in both states say they still haven't pinned down its precise source -- but that hasn't stopped New York officials from pointing a finger across the Hudson River.\n"We always get blamed for it," said Milton Tzoumas, manager of a diner in an industrial section of Kearny, seven miles west of Manhattan. "We're right across from them, so blame the closest person. Everyone is going to blame us."\nCharles Sturcken, a spokesman for New York's Department of Environmental Protection, said early Tuesday that his agency was pretty sure the source of the smell was along New Jersey's industrialized waterfront.\nNew Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson bristled at that.\n"It looks an awful lot like jumping to conclusions," she said.\nHer environmental officials were reviewing emissions reports from those plants, but they were unable to find a source, DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said Tuesday.\n"It's likely we will never know," she said. "The longer you get after it has dissipated, the more difficult it is."\nThe odor -- some thought it was a chemical used in natural gas, others said rotten eggs -- dissipated within hours and the mayor announced there was no health risk.\nThe chemical plants, oil refineries, trash transfer stations and sewage plants that line the New Jersey Turnpike have long been the stuff of late-night comedians, and rolled-up car windows.