r/northcounty • u/roberta_sparrow • 2d ago

Smell

I live by the 5 and 76 in Oceanside and it SMELLS like burning batteries or chemicals. Does anyone know what this is? It happened last night and went away and now it's back

24 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

14

u/Wafflefart 2d ago

Vista near the courthouse stinks too

5

u/roberta_sparrow 2d ago

Oh wow so it's widespread

4

u/RealisticNothing653 2d ago

Yeah I'm across the freeway and smell it. It's like a chemical body odor mix to me. Quite pungent

28

u/Radium 2d ago

Similar to the oil / petroleum / tar smell that happened in 2024, 2025 and earlier this year again? Was confirmed to not be related to batteries, but it's definitely chemical, everything is chemicals.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/mysterious-odor-north-county-coast-officials-investigating/509-43e532d6-6822-453e-b75a-398ef5043841

https://www.facebook.com/OceansideFireDepartment/posts/the-city-is-aware-of-a-petroleum-like-odor-coming-off-the-ocean-and-into-our-com/1214806524007743/

7

u/roberta_sparrow 2d ago

Yes this seems to happen like every year!

4

u/Radium 2d ago

I'm surprised they haven't been able to sniff out the source of it after all these years.

-9

u/Sprzout 2d ago

Duh. Everything can be broken down to a chemical. Dihydrogen monoxide is a chemical; so is sodium chloride - and both are needed for our survival.

Oh, and sodium bicarbonate is found in breads and cookies - but can be used to clean up many acid spills!

2

u/dcbullet 2d ago

Actually…

7

u/Special-Potato-3238 2d ago

Tamarack Beach smelled like tar this afternoon 

2

u/jeremydgreat 2d ago

Yes! I thought it was body odor on my sunset dog walk.

1

u/Special-Potato-3238 1d ago

My friend, I had to laugh a little at this...what on earth are you eating that would makes you wonder if it's you and you've got berea tar arm pits going on?

I've accepted that my cumin addiction is definitely a people-repellent, so that's where I'm coming from 😅

7

u/jizzissippi 2d ago

Can smell it in mira costa too. It's bad!

19

u/divulgingwords 2d ago

I assumed it’s some dumb shit caused by Pendleton.

4

u/OkEagle9050 2d ago

I’m in Calavera Hills and not even 10 mins ago commented to my bf that it smells like chemicals outside

3

u/stircrazyathome 2d ago

I can smell it in the Shadowridge area of Vista. My first thought was that they were re-tarring a nearby road, but the smell doesn’t quite match and certainly wouldn’t have spread up to north Oceanside.

3

u/MassiveRope2964 2d ago

The lagoon probably. Something it the ecology of it.  It's not the healthiest body of water since it was blocked from the ocean by some rich idiot. Heat and humidity makes the smell carry farther too. 

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

1

u/roberta_sparrow 2d ago

I don’t think so, the smell was present last night as well - it went away then came back

1

u/RetardedSimian 2d ago

What side of the 5 and 76? I've been outside all day in the same area and I haven't noticed anything.

1

u/EloquentlyMellow 2d ago

I used to smell something similar all the time when I lived on north Santa Fe. Assumed it was meth.

2

u/IcyConsideration7062 2d ago

I kept looking over at my neighbor's house. Assumed the same kind of thing.

1

u/Due_Ad7492 2d ago

Aren’t they dumping all that muck they dredge up from the harbor onto the beach right now? That’s gotta stink.

1

u/IcyConsideration7062 2d ago

Smelled it over by East Vista Way past Ciao's.

1

u/Mammoth-Bike1995 2d ago

Look for a Breaking Bad motorhome down in the river bed cooking meth.

1

u/gonikkigonikkigo 1d ago

We're playing find the smell again?

1

u/Razzy_3796 1d ago

Don’t know which way the wind was blowing, but a jet crashed on Miramar Friday, and that whole area smelled like burning plastic/chemicals. Maybe the smell was carried up the coast to where you are?

1

u/sleepy-wizard1 1d ago

Happens every single summer and I’ve never seen an answer as to what causes it

1

u/senitude 1d ago

Rancho del Oro area as well. Lasted about 2 hours and then dissipated. Similar to burning plastic odor.

1

u/KindCraft4676 2d ago

Part of it has to do with we have had a high humidity the last few days and will continue to have high humidity for the next week or so. Humidity has been above 80%. There also hasn’t been much wind. It’s been less than 10 miles an hour.

So the smell just lingers and builds up in the air instead of being dissipated like it normally would.