Residents of charming waterfront town are trapped inside their homes as revolting smell overwhelms neighborhood

Residents of a charming waterfront municipality successful New Jersey say they person been trapped wrong their homes arsenic a revolting stench wafts crossed nan neighborhood.

The pungent smell is being caused by tens of thousands of dormant food crowding nan lagoon surrounding Osborn Island successful Little Egg Harbor. 

Locals opportunity nan waft is unescapable - which 1 resident likened to that of a nationalist restroom. 

'We hold each summertime to bask our location connected nan water, and you're virtually locked successful nan location for 2 weeks,' Joseph DiGrande told Fox 29 Philadelphia.

'You can't spell outside. You can't breathe. You really can't enactment extracurricular for much than 10 minutes,' he added of life successful Osborn Island, which is typically teeming pinch group enjoying nan seaside aerial connected their balconies, riding bikes aliases taking walks during nan summer.

The dormant food are truthful intimately packed together that from an aerial view, it is difficult to make retired what is crowding nan water.

'It's disgusting, it is nan worst smell successful my full life,' Debbie Wuss told CBS News. 

'I burnt each candle I could perchance find and now I'm successful my infusers,' she said.

Making matters worse, residents opportunity nan odor has attracted swarms of seagulls, who person near their people connected nan neighborhood.

'The birds are destroying nan tops of houses,' Bob O'Brien said.

'They're going each complete nan cars, each complete your boats.' 

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has blamed nan monolithic food termination connected a operation of lukewarm temperatures and mediocre h2o value successful nan lagoon.

'Staff wished that mediocre h2o value resulting from warmer temperatures and debased dissolved oxygen successful nan lagoon resulted successful nan food mortality successful nan lagoon,' a spokesperson told CBS.

'Fish and Wildlife unit wished that this was an isolated arena and astir of nan dormant food will people beryllium removed from nan lagoon by nan tides aliases by tide flow.'

But residents opportunity this is nan 2nd clip specified a monolithic food termination has occurred successful nan lagoon successful conscionable 1 month, and DiGrande - who has lived successful nan area since 2019 - said it has been happening 2 to 3 times a twelvemonth for nan past 3 years.

At times, he said, crews person travel to vacuum up nan dormant fish.

But truthful far, nan Department of Environmental Protection has not done thing this clip to thief residents get backmost to their seaside manner arsenic wellness officials pass them not to aquatics successful immoderate assemblage of h2o pinch a ample attraction of fish.

'We're not getting immoderate help, and it's not nan first clip we asked,' DiGrande claimed.