WHISKEY BOTTLES, BRAND NEW CARS NOT AT FAULT

If you live in Charleston or have recently visited Chucktown and have noticed a rather rancid odor in the air, then apparently you’re not alone. So what is the cause of the pungent stench?

The UPI reports:

The long, dry summer has left people strolling along the quaint downtown streets of Charleston wrinkling their noses because the by-product of carriage tours — horse droppings — fills the air with a less-than-quaint odor, the Charleston Post and Courier reported Thursday.

“It’s a bad smell,” says Beth Friendly, who sells perfumes in the Market area. “It’s giving me a headache.”

Rob Clark, Charleston Equine Sanitation manager, says the weather, specifically the lack of rain, is the main culprit for extending the smells of summer into fall. But there’s another smelly source as well — the porous asphalt that soaks up the odors then squeezes them out over and over.

“If you stopped running horse tours tomorrow, you could still smell it next August,” Clark said. “All we can do is disinfect it and clean it up. But nothing we can do is better than a good rain.”