Californian stink!

The complaint calls came in as people wondered where the overwhelming絕大多數 odor氣味 was coming from. Air quality officials空氣檢測員 went searching for the sulphur硫磺 smell, checking rubbish dumps, refineries煉油廠 and the usual suspects嫌疑犯.

But finally the stink was linked to the Salton Sea - the state's biggest lake - created by mistake a century ago when water irrigation灌溉 engineers accidentally diverted轉移 the entire整個 Colorado River into the desert for 18 months. Fed since then by fertilizer-laden肥料 irrigation run-off water, the sea suffers periodic booms繁榮 and busts蕭條 of life. Millions of fish recently perished滅亡 and stormy weather暴風雨 whipped up刮起 the stink from the bottom of the shallow lake淺水湖 and spread the smell of rotten臭雞蛋 eggs 150 miles.

"It was a very large and unusual odour event", the air quality inspectors informed the public, but now the wind's changed and much of southern California is smelling sweetly once again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/09/120913_witn_la_stink.shtml