6/11/2013 2:07:53 AM
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is soliciting input on a proposed new odor nuisance management strategy. The effort grew out of years of complaints from frustrated victims of nasty odors in North Plains (Recology outdoor food compost facility) and Portland (Daimler paint plant, ESCO foundry). DEQ has long "regulated" odors from facilities like these, and like Riverbend Landfill, by putting language that prohibits nuisance odors in their permits. However, DEQ never enforces these requirements.
The draft strategy proposes to develop a path to enforcement that includes the following steps: The agency will:
- monitor, track, and respond to odor complaints;
- determine appropriate abatement measures ("best work practices");
- refer offenders to the state Office of Compliance and Enforcement which will order the offender to institute the abatement.
We find a lot of problems with this approach. For example, DEQ currently believes the landfill engages in "best work practices" to control odors -- yet no matter how successfully those practices are implemented, the odors never decrease! In other words, the strategy cannot succeed unless the abatement measures chosen actually work.
Moreover, the strategy contains no standards for determining the sufficiency of the evidence required before the agency will declare a site to be a "suspected nuisance" subject to a requirement to implement abatement measures. Finally, although they will be "consulted," the people most impacted by the odor are not made parties to any proposed Best Work Practices Agreement that DEQ may sign with the offender.
Please read the proposed odor nuisance strategy and let DEQ know you want it strengthened! Find the strategy at:
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