NORTHAMPTON — Fire officials suspect that a smell present throughout the city Thursday afternoon was caused by farmers spreading manure.
Fire Captain Andy Breen said he and sewer department officials were dispatched to the Union Station area to investigate following some calls to dispatch about an offensive odor.
Breen said sewer officials were confident that there was no breach in the sewer line as some feared and that the smell was due to farmers spreading manure in fields.
“They are either spraying the fields in the meadows or spraying the fields in Hadley,” Breen said.
Steven Barstow II of Barstow’s Longview Farm in Hadley said that they were spraying manure Thursday.
“You were probably smelling us,” he said.
Barstow said dry and windless conditions make ideal conditions to spread manure, which he prefers to do during the fall and spring.
Barstow’s manure is made from cow and food waste that is put through an anaerobic digester, which creates electricity on the farm, according to Barstow.
Barstow said the farm, located at 172 Hockanum Road in Hadley, will be having an open house Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We’ll be answering people’s questions about what we do,” he said.
Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at deisen@gazettenet.com.