ST. ROSE — Bucket Brigade’s Emergency Reponses Team is deploying in St. Charles Parish today following a report of a foul smell in the St. Rose area.

“Despite repeated claims by the Department of Environmental Quality that the chemical and gas odors in St. Rose pose no harm to human health, residents are reporting of headaches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea,” a release from the organization said. “The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has received 22 calls of health complaints since Monday. The health problems have persisted throughout the week.”

In its release, the Bucket Brigade reports Erica Bolden of St. Rose saying, “My momma is an elderly lady and she has asthma. Yesterday the smell was so bad, my brother and I had to go across the river to take her out because she felt nauseated and short of breath.”

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has issued no air monitoring reports.

“Our so called Department of Environmental Quality is saying that human health is not harmed even when people are obviously sick,” said Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. “We do not trust the state, and this accident shows why. We need immediate intervention. People should be evacuated if the chemical leak can’t be stopped, and the company at fault should be slammed with the highest fine possible. Our public officials are asleep at the wheel.”

The suspected source of the chemical leadk is International Matex Tank Terminals or Shell Asphalt.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is deploying its Emergency Response Team to go door to door and document the health problems of residents.

“We are taxpayers,” Bolden said. “We have the right to live and a right to breathe. It’s ridiculous. They can say it’s not affecting nobody, but we’re living proof that’s a lie.”

The source of a foul odor in St. Rose is under investigation, but authorities say it poses no hazard threat to the surrounding community.

St. Charles Parish Public Information Officer Renee Allemand Simpson said the parish Emergency Operations Center is working with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality regarding odor reports in the St. Rose area.

“The source of the odor remains under investigation,” Simpson said in a release Thursday. “The LDEQ has confirmed via ongoing air monitoring that there is no toxic hazard posed by the odor at this time.”

The agency’s Mobile Air Monitoring Laboratory conducted air monitoring in area neighborhoods Thursday.

Authorities stressed there continue to be no protective measures recommended on the part of the public.

Residents may call St. Charles Parish Emergency Operations Center for more information or to make odor reports at 985-783-5050 24 hours a day.

The St. Charles Parish Emergency Operations first announced it was aware of an odor being detected by residents in the St. Rose area Wednesday.

A release Wednesday said authorities were investigating the source of the odor on the IMTT site.