Development of odour impact criteria for sewage treatment plants using odour complaint history

Abstract

Odour impact from a sewage treatment plant has been predicted using a Gausian plume atmospheric model (Ausplume). A wind tunnel system was used to determine the odour emission from processing units. An improved technique for odour emission rate modelling is proposed to take account of wind speeds and atmospheric stability classes. A new technique is proposed to define odour impact criteria for sewage treatment plants. The dispersion model was calibrated using two years of odour complaint data. An odour concentration of 23 OU/m3 as a one hour averaged 99.5th percentile was found to be appropriate to minimise adverse community impacts, assuming lognormal human nose response to odours and a “zero complaints” community objective. The proposed method can also be used to develop odour impact criteria for other industries.

Developing Odor Impact Assessment Procedures

“…Kaye and Jiang (1999) reported a case study based method to define odor impact criteria for area sewage treatment plant sources based on the correlation of complaints with atmospheric dispersion modeling. Similar case studies have subsequently been undertaken using other community odor complaint databases.…”

Sewage Treatment Plants

“…Malodors are the main cause of the public complaints received by environmental regulatory agencies worldwide (Kaye & Jiang, 2000). Malodorous emissions from WWTPs rank among the most unpleasant ones and their nuisance on the nearby…”

Applying odor control technologies using reliability and sustainability criteria – examples of full-scale outcomes

“…Malodors are the main cause of the public complaints received by environmental regulatory agencies worldwide (Kaye and Jiang, 2000). Malodorous emissions from WWTPs rank among the most unpleasant followed by industries such as meat rendering and paper manufacturing.…”