SOUTH CAROLINA (From news reports) -- South Carolina environmental officials are demanding that the New-Indy mill in Catawba lower gas emissions that are making the area smell like rotten eggs.

The New-Indy mill is belching out too much of a "noxious air contaminant," making parts of Lancaster and York counties and neighboring areas in North Carolina, including Charlotte, reek, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

DHEC's order tells New-Indy to check its regulations and equipment in order to decrease the emissions.

"This order clearly defines immediate actions that New Indy must take to ensure good air quality for the people who live and work near the facility," said Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC director. "As the state's public health and environmental protection agency, it is our duty to ensure that companies in South Carolina are good stewards of our beautiful state and that our residents have clean, odor-free air to the extent we can control."

New-Indy has disputed claims that the mill is to blame for the odor.

The company, in an April 16 letter to Myra Reece, the state director of environmental affairs, said it hired an outside firm that found no chemical compounds "in any meaningful concentration that would equate to intense odors," it was previously reported.

The order requires New-Indy to start testing and cleaning up the air by mid-May, with further testing required to commence by June 1.

DHEC said that it began receiving complaint about the odor in February and to date has received 17,135 complaints, an "unprecedented number" about an odor.

After investigating, DHEC determined that a shift from making white paper to cardboard as well as equipment changes at the factory are the likely sources of the odor.