- Published
Milpitas, an affluent city in California's Silicon Valley tech hub, has an odour problem.
asserted
Milpitas → publish → problem
For decades, residents have had to endure rank smells wafting from industrial sites, among them a 342-acre landfill.
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residents → have → them
"When I first moved here, I could not open my window for over 10 years," says Chia-Ling Kong, an engineer for a tech firm who lives around half a mile from the dump.
uncertain
who → move → dump
While things have got better in recent years, Kong says she and her neighbours must still contend with around "two or three hours of bad smells a day".
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she → get → smells
Perhaps befitting Silicon Valley, the community is putting its hopes in technology.
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community → befit → technology
The operators of Newby Island landfill have been ordered by local authorities to use drones and install monitors to systematically track and measure the chemicals responsible for bad odours.
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operators → order → odours
They have also been told to automate the collection of landfill gases responsible for smells.
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They → tell → smells
Kong is optimistic a data-driven approach will make a difference.
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approach → drive → difference
"Hopefully with this continuous monitoring, it makes it easier to pinpoint problems at the moment it starts."
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it → make → moment
The operators of the landfill say they are committed to operating it safely and protecting air quality.
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they → say → quality
Just like in Milpitas, where Kong is part of a citizen's campaign against the odours, communities around the world are raising a stink about bad smells making day-to-day life miserable.
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life → raise → day
Sometimes a rubbish dump is to blame, or it might be a sewage treatment works, or a reeking factory.
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it → blame → ?
When the complaints start stacking up, resolving them is not always simple.
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resolving → start → them
Many countries have no regulations in place dictating how to manage smells.
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countries → have → smells
In the US, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate environmental odours as a pollutant.
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Agency → regulate → pollutant
This leaves states and local governments to take charge of the issue.
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This → leave → issue
Urban sprawl is often part of the problem, bringing communities closer to stinky facilities that may historically have been kept at a distance.
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that → bring → distance
This is creating more demand for technologies to monitor and prevent smells.
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This → create → smells
Odour consultant Micheal Bull says people are increasingly concerned about neighbourhood stinks.
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people → say → stinks
"You're getting developments being built nearer to odorous processes… as land has become more valuable, there is also infilling," Bull says.
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Bull → get → processes
He is speaking about his experiences in the UK, but it's a similar story in many parts of the world.
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it → speak → world
The technologies used to tackle industrial pongs generally fall into three categories: they absorb odours; convert them into something less smelly through a chemical reaction; or burn them away.
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they → use → them
Experts on fixing industrial odours say that the best technologies, when used correctly, can remove 90% or more of the target compounds responsible for smells.
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technologies → fix → smells
But this can be expensive and some operators opt for simpler and cheaper solutions.
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operators → opt → solutions
These include masking odours from landfill or sewage processing by spraying giant quantities of deodorisers.
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These → include → deodorisers
Odour experts contacted for this article were dubious about the effectiveness of such industrial scale air fresheners.
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experts → contact → fresheners
"In my view they're not likely to change the odours," says Bull, who likens them to fabric conditioner.
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who → change → conditioner
Bad smells from waste sites – a common cause of complaints – are among the stinkiest and most difficult to resolve, according to Carlos Diaz, an environmental consultant based in Spain.
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smells → resolve → Spain
"Landfill is difficult to treat because you have a very large surface," he says.
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he → treat → surface
In some places at least, technology is making a real difference.
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technology → make → difference
Residents in Des Moines, Iowa, have long complained of the so-called Eastside Funk, a putrid scent that residents report drifts over parts of the city.
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residents → complain → city
A study commissioned by city authorities showed that a trio of industrial meat companies were among culprits.
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trio → commission → culprits
"Within 10 miles, there's about half a million people," says Dalton Jacobus, who works in the Department of Neighborhood Services.
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who → be → Services
"
The authorities are now paying around $240,000 (£182,000) a year on technology to track the stink, so they can take action.
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they → pay → action
"What we wanted to do was build a ring of odour monitors around the facilities that we suspected of emitting odours," says Jacobus.
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Jacobus → want → odours
The monitors, which measure levels of chemical compounds in the air, work in combination with a weather station to provide real-time data on the concentrations that are coming from each facility based off the wind patterns.
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that → measure → patterns
This has put an end to finger pointing about who's to blame each time a smell sparks complaints, says Jacobus.
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Jacobus → put → complaints
"Now we can say with reasonable certainty that 'this odour event did originate from your facility, what was going on'?
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what → say → facility
Meanwhile, some of the sites that have been blamed for causing unpleasant smells in Des Moines have spent millions of dollars to upgrade their own odour control systems.
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that → blame → systems
Smithfield Foods, which operates a meat processing in Des Moines, says it has invested $2m to install a regenerative thermal oxidiser that destroys the chemicals associated with bad smells.
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that → operate → smells
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
