Progressive Odour Management Plan

The presence of nuisance odours originating from any facility ‐ identified during operator, manager or regulator site inspection, or a neighbour complaint verified by a “trained” nose – initiates the first four levels of action that take place successively until the odour conditions external to the property are acceptable to the local health department or regional air quality authority. Anotec recommends that Levels one through to four form part of your operating requirements or EMP (Environmental Management Plan).

Level 1

 Level 1 is a self odour inspection and correction operation. Each of the operational aspects of the business that impact on odour generation and control is evaluated by operating personnel to determine their contribution to the offensive odour.

 Level 2

 Level 2 is to change the operating procedures. This is implemented if the odours are still persisting and you have done the best you can with the tools available in Level 1 operations, the company and regulators evaluate those improper conditions together, as a team, and outline new procedures and handling methods. Changes that reduce odours are adopted into the plan of operation and maintained. Level 1 can now continue to be implemented. 

 Level 3 

 This level involves restriction of either raw materials or existing chemical pollution control devices. If the odours are still a problem, those chemicals should be suspended from acceptance in large volumes until changes in operations or handling prove to create acceptable odour conditions. If at this time the facilities is still generating the unreasonable odours, or if Management wishes to substantially change the facility to resolve the odour problems for the omitted raw materials, then Level 4 needs to be entered into. Odour Identification & Response prior to level 4 is important because the fourth level of remediation most likely will impact ongoing operations significantly. Good planning and establishment of benchmarks need to occur before going to that level. At this level, Odour Complaints should be approached more formally.

 Level 4 

 Level 4 is basically retrofitting. When designed and fully implemented, the effectiveness of the corrections will be evaluated. Once the changes are in place, normal operations can resume and the business will operate at the Level 1 mode for odour assessment and control.