Wow, just drove through this noxious and horrible smelling 4-5 mile long cloud of methane gas. Almost straight down from Odessa. I have never smelled anything like this along I10 in Texas. Beaumont is bad but this was really strong and noxious.

Methane is odorless.You may have been smelling hydrogen sulfide. As long as you can smell it, you are OK. It's when you can't smell it that it will kill you.

Yeah, the only thing I really have to compare it with is driving past the valero refinery in three rivers. But much stronger. It was really somewhat toxic smelling and feeling.

Could it have come from fracking?

Fracing does not produce anything more than diesel smell from the engines. Most likely it was H2S. Refineries emit a lot of odors, You can drive thru a plant and get 20 different odors. But according to the refinery, it is harmless and they have vapor proof chain link fences so the odor stays in the plant.

You really want an experience, drive over the beltway 8 bridge after midnight. You can see the odor in your headlights before you smell it. And it is choking!

I experience the same noxious gases and foul odors in my truck about an hour after I stop at Allsup's for one of their gut bombs.

Huh? As long as you can smell it, you're ok? Please explain? H2S is deadly at very high concentrations. You can smell it at concentrations of 3-5ppm, but I've never heard if you can't smell it, you're ok.

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hydrogensulfide/hazards.html

The primary route of exposure is inhalation
and the gas is rapidly absorbed by the lungs.
Absorption through the skin is minimal.
People can smell the “rotten egg” odor of
hydrogen sulfide at low concentrations in air.
However, with continuous low-level exposure, or at high concentrations, a person
loses his/her ability to smell the gas even
though it is still present (olfactory fatigue).
This can happen very rapidly and at high
concentrations, the ability to smell the gas
can be lost instantaneously. Therefore, DO
NOT rely on your sense of smell to indicate
the continuing presence of hydrogen sulfide
or to warn of hazardous concentrations.

I did not say if you can't smell it you are OK. Go back and read my post.

You were down wind.

LOL Smell those dairy cows at the Texas- New Mexico border. Pray for a north wind!

Ethel Mercaptan in LPG doesn't smell good either.

West Texas stinks. I can often smell rotten eggs outside my door.... sometimes after chastising the dog for farting. THAT bad.

You think the air in Odessa is bad you should taste their water.

Should have tasted in the 70's when it all came from Spence. Tastes like Perrier compared to that stuff.