Over the past three weeks the QAC Department of Public Works – Sanitary District has received dozens of complaints of an offensive odor generally in the area of Route 8 and the Bay Bridge. Citizens were concerned that the odor was coming from the sewage system or the sewage treatment plant serving the area. Complaints to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) led to an investigation by an MDE State Regulatory and Compliance Engineer. MDE determined that the cause of the odor was in fact due to a significant amount of seaweed, known as sea lettuce, that had washed up along the shorelines and was decomposing.