VIDALIA — For residents in part of Concordia Parish, waking up to the smell of eggs this week hasn’t been a pleasant experience.

That’s because the egg smell was rotten and didn’t come from the kitchen.

Instead, it was coming from the yard at Concordia Metals, where an incident with a tank being brought in for scrap metal released a strong stench that made breathing the air in the Mooselodge, Airport, Vail Acres and Concordia Park road areas a less than enjoyable experience.

While it was offensive to the senses, the chemical from which the stench emanated was not toxic, Concordia Metals Spokesman Jim Smith said.

A demolition crew scrapping a natural gas pipeline near Lake St. John brought in an old tank that contained a few gallons of the odorant injected into natural gas to make it detectable by smell, Smith said.

“It was only a couple of gallons in it, but when we dropped the tank, it escaped,” he said. “There is no danger, only trace elements gas way below the danger line, and we are in the process of working with the Department of Environmental Quality to get it removed.”

Smith said Concordia Metals put a dispersant into the chemical to help clear the air and the issue should be completely neutralized by today.

“It takes a little time for it to go away, and we will hopefully remove (the tank Thursday),” he said. “We are working now to get it removed, and the company doing the demolition will be responsible for transporting it.”

Smith said the company also planned to go door-to-door and issue apologies to those who live in surrounding areas and might have been affected.