Columbia Borough Fire Department is aware of an increase of 9-1-1 calls being made regarding the smell of a gas leak in the areas of Columbia Borough and towards Lancaster City.

Hazmat 2 Environmental Fire Rescue dispatched a Duty Officer to conduct a site evaluation and concluded there is no immediate hazard to the public. During the site evaluation, a chemical: methyl mercaptan, was identified.

Methyl mercaptan is the odorant added to methane gas (by gas companies) for it to be detectable by scent. The current odor that residents may be smelling is methyl mercaptan originating from a pipe at a recycling center. The responsible parties have completed clean up at the site. The odor will continue to linger for some time.
Methyl mercaptan has an odor threshold of 1ppb (part per billion) This means that people can smell Methyl Mercaptan even if there's just 1 part of it in 1 billion parts of air. It's incredibly potent—kind of like noticing a drop of something in a swimming pool.

Again, there is no hazard to the public.