When a regional agency on the West Coast wanted to take proactive steps to engage, educate and inform the local community about emissions, sources, and their mitigation plans, they turned to Envirosuite for their real-time solution.
By Andres Quijano
A regional agency on the West Coast was established in the 1970s through a joint exercise of powers agreement between local county and neighboring cities to own, operate, and maintain a sanitary landfill, and all related improvements. The authority’s facilities consist of local landfill operations, which includes composting, household hazardous waste, and recycling and buyback facilities.
Project Overview
The authority plays an integral role within the community, managing the highest regulatory and environmental standards to confidently and securely collect, process, treat, recycle, and dispose of waste within the area.
As with most waste facilities a key concern is odor emissions due to the impact it can have on the neighboring communities. The waste management team operates in a busy industrial area, meaning emissions can be higher than normal during the months of January to March. Many of the staff at the agency are local residents, so the team understands the importance of prioritizing community response, as well as focusing on continual improvement through the digitalization of the facility to minimize impacts and to build social license to operate.
Images courtesy of Envirosuite.
Challenges
When the landfill facility was originally developed, it was in an area that was designated as rural and away from the town. However, over time, the community sprawl and residential rezoning has meant that the once distant waste facility is now within reach of the community, which, in turn, is creating issues for both the authority and the community. More recently, buffer zones have been reduced to merely a few hundred feet from the fence line. Reduced buffer zones create a higher probability for community complaints, which in the worst case, can mean fines for the facility.
The other complexity of this situation is that given that the location of the facility is in a rural area, there is often odor emissions that are potentially being generated by other industries such as agriculture, biomass and biofuel plants, and waste oil recycling.
Due to the complexity of the location and potential odor sources, the authority needed to find a solution that would help them to:
• Validate odor measurement peaks with historical data and deduce a reason for the emissions either from their site or others
• Improve operations with insights gathered from collecting and analyzing the data
• Create transparency and educate the community citizens on the issue of odors
• Demonstrate accountability and proactivity by monitoring odors measurements in real-time
The waste management authority was looking for a solution to solve these problems and make informed decisions, all the while building a strong relationship with its neighbors.
Solution
Envirosuite’s EVS Omnis ESG software enables the waste management authority to not only measure, monitor, and manage the emissions from the site, but to also understand when emissions are not coming from their facility. This platform includes several functions that empower the operators to manage potential problems with odor emissions as part of their operations.
The technology provides access to data collected by the installed eNose sensors (including the weather station) in real-time. The convenient and intuitive software allows the operator to visualize the probable cause of an emission or measurement at any one of the sensors deployed at the site. With the use of real-time weather data, the solution can indicate the origin of a measurement when it exceeds the predefined alert thresholds. This helps understand the sources of odor causing threshold exceedances on the site.
Envirosuite’s platform will also help the authority futureproof for other potential emissions. While the waste management team is currently using EVS Omnis for odor emissions monitoring and management, the platform can also measure dust and support the facility with dust mitigation strategies due to its dry, clay-like soil.
Results
The waste management team can use real-time monitoring software for odors and complaints management. The Envirosuite software has been embedded into the facility’s operations providing daily odor risk reports to help inform when odors may be higher, historical data when complaints occur and allowing them to pinpoint the source, as well as plume data that can be used in response to community complaints. The EVS Omnis software allows users to:
• Quickly assess the situation pertaining to relevant odor emissions
• Quickly understand changes of situation
• Be proactive with an alert system that can be programmed
• Prepare relevant reports for stakeholders
• Access to data for easy processing, analysis, decision, and future reference
With Envirosuite, the waste management authority is managing the changes to urbanization around the facility and using data to their advantage to build trust and renew social license to operate as residential areas continue to expand. It is also helping the management to prepare for future operations by having data and insights that will help as the regulations change or emissions increase due to growth in food and waste composting relative to population growth.
By taking proactive steps to engage, educate, and inform the local community about emissions, sources, and their mitigation plans, the agency is building a positive relationship between industry and community so both can thrive.
“Envirosuite’s EVS Omnis has become part of our daily routine to help us understand our potential emissions so that we can minimize and mitigate impact on the local community, while maintaining operations,” states an Engineering Technician at the facility, “As members of the community, it’s important that we consider those around us and proactively manage emissions so that we can continue to operate and serve our community members.” | WA
Andres Quijano is currently the Solutions Design Engineer for the Americas at Envirosuite. He has more than 15 years of experience creating integrated hardware and software solutions that assist environmental professionals and site operators to optimize their management plans. His experience and passion for software has led him to design solutions that meet the most challenging environmental demands and constantly exceed customers’ expectations. Andres can be reached at [email protected]. For more information, visit https://envirosuite.com/industries/waste-management.
References
• https://envirosuite.com/platforms/omnis
• https://envirosuite.com/platforms/iot/e-nose-ambient
• https://envirosuite.com/parameters/odour-management