| Oct. 6, 2006 South Coast
AQMD today adopted the nation’s first air quality regulation specifically
designed to minimize odors from trash and recycling centers.
“Many of these facilities are located in areas where residents are
heavily impacted by odors from these operations,” said William A. Burke,
Ed.D., AQMD’s Governing Board Chairman. “This new measure will ensure
facilities are employing feasible measures to prevent odors from their
operations.”
AQMD’s Governing Board today adopted Rule 410 – Odors from Transfer
Stations and Material Recovery Facilities – as a preventative approach to
reducing odors in communities from nearby trash transfer and sorting
facilities.
Solid waste, green waste, construction materials and recyclables are
taken in collection trucks to transfer stations where they are sorted and
transferred to larger trucks that transport the waste to other disposal
sites such as landfills or recycling centers. Material recovery facilities
(MRFs) sort and separate recyclable material from solid waste.
There are 45 trash transfer stations and MRFs in the Southland subject to
Rule 410. From January 2001 through October 2005 AQMD received more than
1,500 complaints – verified by AQMD field inspectors – of odors from these
waste facilities.
Historically, AQMD has used its Rule 402 – Public Nuisance, to address
odor complaints from waste operations and other facilities. However, the
rule is a limited enforcement tool requiring a number of public complaints
and the tracking of frequently fleeting odors to their source.
Today’s action is one strategy in AQMD’s Cumulative Impacts White Paper
approved by the agency’s Governing Board in 2003. The strategy recommended
the development of a pilot odor abatement program to help prevent exposure
to odors. Since AQMD receives a high number of odor complaints from trash
transfer stations and MRFs, the industry was selected for an odor
regulation.
Beginning January 1, 2008, all trash transfer stations and MRFs permitted
to handle more than 100 tons per day of solid waste must have an odor
management plan approved by the AQMD or a solid waste management enforcement
agency. The rule requires facility operators to designate an odor control
method or technique for each source of odors at a facility.
Some of the required elements of an odor plan include:
- information on the amount of material a facility handles per day.
Facilities handling more than 250 tons per day will be subject to
additional control measures;
- housekeeping measures, such as sweeping the area where materials are
transferred;
- covering of trucks and trailers within 15 minutes after loading; and
- protocol for handling community complaints, including placing a
contact sign at least 50 feet from the main entrance and maintaining a
written log of odor complaints received.
Additional elements are required in the odor plan if a facility handles
green waste.
In addition to an odor plan, new or modified facilities handling more
than 1,000 tons per day of material must implement additional odor control
strategies that include misting systems, partial or full enclosures or
demonstrating that the facility is located more than 1,000 feet from areas
zoned for schools or residential development.
In other action today, the Board:
- Awarded more than $24 million to replace 133 older, dirty diesel
school buses with new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and retrofit 452
existing diesel school buses with control devices to reduce particulate
matter emissions. Funding was also provided to defray costs for the
necessary refueling infrastructure. Since 2000, AQMD has awarded over $82
million to replace 419 diesel school buses and retrofit another 2,500 with
emission control devices; and
- Awarded more than $30 million for 46 projects under the Carl Moyer
Program to help replace existing engines in various on-road, off-road,
marine, locomotive, and agricultural vehicles with cleaner engines to
reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions. A list of projects is
available at
http://www.aqmd.gov/hb/2006/October/06104A.HTML
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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