Google Maps The Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental investigators are looking into a strong odor that's been reported along the North Carolina-South Carolina border near Charlotte. The smell has been most prevalent in South Carolina's Lancaster and York counties but has been reported in many surrounding areas as well. Residents describe it as an intense, rotting stench that can wake people up at night or cause people to develop nosebleeds and intense nausea. Thousands of complaints have been filed with South Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality since January, which prompted the state to investigate the odor's origins. A preliminary state investigation took many of the complaints and matched them with wind speed and direction data to figure out where the air may have traveled from.