If you see columns of fire shooting skyward in Cobb soon, that’s OK
If you are driving through Cobb County this week and smell rotten eggs or see fire leaping toward the heavens, that actually might supposed to be happening.
According to a Facebook post from the City of Smyrna and the county, there are natural gas flaring activities planned to start Tuesday and last 48 hours.
The city said this is part of the Northwest Georgia Expansion, which Atlanta Gas Light describes on its website as a 10-mile pipeline project through Cobb and Paulding counties.
But what is natural gas flaring?
Well, the United States Energy Information Administration explains that flaring is done regularly "in areas where natural gas is produced at oil wells but is not economical to transport for sale or contains high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (a toxic gas)."
It is burned at well sites, which is “safer than releasing natural gas into the air and results in lower overall greenhouse gas emissions,” the EIA said.
The city’s Facebook post said the flarings will take place near the Lucas Road Regulator Station in a Paulding section of Acworth.
The reason for the rotten egg smell is the mercaptan added to the gas to alert folks in case of a gas leak.
So you might want to hold your nose while driving in Acworth the next few days.
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About the Author
Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
