Each day Laura Fast and Paul Teska wake up in their Stickney home, they are greeted by a pungent odor reminiscent of rotten eggs.

Two doors down, their neighbor Tony Gonzalez dreads rain storms because he knows the sound of clanging manhole covers will keep him awake all night.

“The smell bleeds into the house. You wake up and that smell permeates everything,” Teska said “Tony can’t get any sleep over there because the lid sits there banging around.”

The problem stems from more than a dozen manhole covers that line the street outside Fast and Teska’s home at 4237 East Ave. When the sewer system below experiences increases in pressure, the air forces the covers to pop on and off the ground and spews a foul smell into the community.

“There’s never a good day but there are worse days — unbearable days,” Fast said, noting that hot, windless days are the worst.

Fast said the smell began about 15 years ago, shortly after she moved into the home. At first it was bearable, but the odor and noise have worsened in the last five years. It is now to the point, Fast said, where friends do not like to visit and her two young sons complain when they go outside to play.

“We can’t have neighbors over, we can’t have barbecues, we can’t do anything,” Fast said. “You can’t even sell the house to get out because nobody’s going to buy it.”

Fast approached the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which operates the sewer system, about the problem several years ago, after she became concerned for her family’s safety.

“The bottom line is, I want to know what’s coming out of there,” Fast said. “And I want to know that it’s going away soon.”

District spokeswoman Jill Horist said the pressure is caused by sewage dropping 11 feet into the sewer system. The drop creates air turbulence, which in turn forces air out through the manholes.

Although Horist couldn’t say for sure what was causing the smell, the most likely culprit seems to be hydrogen sulfide gas, also known as “sewer gas,” because it is created by the breakdown of sewage waste. The gas is deadly in extremely high amounts, Horist said, but it does not pose a threat in well-ventilated areas. The gas can, however, cause eye irritation, dizziness and fatigue in lower levels, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“What’s leveling up over there is not dangerous, just smelly,” Horist said. “The EPA has tested the air for us on a regular basis and there’s no harmful effects. It just smells bad.”

Even so, the district has already ordered a ventilation system that will be installed in one of the manholes across the street from Fast and Tuska’s home. The vent will suck air from the manhole through a filter to remove the hydrogen sulfide gas. The fumes will then be pushed into the air in the opposite direction of residential homes.

Horist said the system is expected to arrive next week and, once work begins, installation can be completed in four weeks. The district also is looking to overhaul the sewer system in the area and is currently seeking engineering proposals.

“Our plan and our mission is to be as excellent a neighbor as we can possibly can be,” Horist said.