Tips for tackling odours ahead of rainy days
The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed NSW endured the wettest autumn in over 30 years, and the fourth-warmest nights since records began. We know that these conditions can end up more ‘on the nose’ than usual for some operations and facilities – and the communities around them
This year, wet weather during Autumn continued to exacerbate the problem of foul smells in some areas with an increased number of odour complaints being reported to the EPA.
We’ve been closely working with or directing some facilities, particularly waste facilities, to provide guidance or direction on how they can reduce odours.
EPA Manager Regulatory Operations Rob Hogan said the common types of activities associated with odour complaints are agricultural processing and livestock activities, as well as waste and resource recovery activities such as landfilling and composting.
“We have particularly been getting calls about odours from waste facilities, as landfills and stored green waste were getting saturated from prolonged rainfall events and becoming smelly,” Rob said.
“Licensees managing any of these types of facilities should be proactively working to anticipate and manage any potential odour-generating activities and processes, before they become a problem, because foul odours can be incredibly frustrating for neighbours. The court can also impose fines of up to $1 million for odour offences.”
The following mitigation measures may be relevant for your facility to reduce odours.
Proactive tips to reduce odours:
- Actively manage and anticipate rainfall and run-off to reduce leachate / effluent / wastewater generation on your site
- Plan contingency measures for increased surface water and wastewater eg storage capacity or offsite transport to an appropriate facility
- Check and maintain gas collection systems
- For landfills, review the use of cover material, for example is what you’re currently using going to be effective at controlling odours and do you have enough material?
- Check around your site for general housekeeping, for example do you have large quantities of stock type that could be affected, what about the onsite, pad/hardstand condition
- Plan regular odour surveys at your site and in the surrounding areas and react quickly if there is a problem
- Monitor weather in conjunction with operational management controls so you can respond to changing conditions for example, stopping odour-generating activities when the wind blows in a direction that will impact the community
Reporting odours
Community members can report odours direct to the facility or business responsible for the odours, or to the EPA.
Facilities licensed by the EPA should also be actively managing odour complaints that come in from their community and keeping the community informed when odours are becoming an issue.
Important information on odours can be recorded using the fact sheet and odour log sheet (PDF 160KB).
If you are impacted by odour please contact the EPA’s 24-hour Environment Line on 131 555 or email info@epa.nsw.gov.au.