The nature of odour management means that clients often only look into it when they receive advice that they need to. Usually, that advice comes from a regulator or local authority. It may relate to a regulatory or planning stipulation or following complaints from the public. As a result, your initial interaction with odour services, like those we offer at Silsoe Odours, might not be welcome. With this in mind, we look into the potential benefits you will experience when you manage odour effectively.

In general, there are three core reasons you may need support with odour management. Remember, the benefits are not mutually exclusive. You will likely achieve at least two, depending on your objectives.

When you effectively manage odour, you could:

• Reduce Odour Emissions

• Demonstrate Regulatory Compliance

• Achieve Planning Permission 

REDUCE ODOUR EMISSIONS

Unsurprisingly, many clients want to reduce emissions from their processes. Society has high expectations of operators. People expect to live and work in an environment that is odour-free. Not only that, but environmental permits are in place to ensure this happens. So if you start to receive complaints, you need to react quickly and fix the problem. It is even better to catch potential odour management issues before they escalate.

Develop Best Practice for Odour Management

It is an ongoing process to reduce and maintain low odour emissions. Continual best practices can save your business time, effort and money later. Not to mention creating good feeling in your community.

An odour sampling survey, sniff survey or dispersion model (or a combination of the three) arms you with statistical data. This data helps you understand the sources and extent of emissions from your industrial processes.

In turn, you can use this knowledge to make changes. You can also use it to help you maintain or build odour management best practice procedures. If you do not already have an odour management plan, now is a great time to get one up and running. Once you have your best practice in place, you will see efficiency and maintenance improvements. What’s more, robust procedures give you a paper trail. You can use this as evidence in court or for the regulator if you need to later.

These factors contribute to ‘futureproofing’ your processes, ensuring their operational longevity.

Ensure Effective Design

You will find odour management data helpful if you build a new site or install new abatement equipment. Usually, this will involve an odour sampling survey or a sniff survey combined with odour dispersion modelling. The results will tell you the projected impact of your planned site on the local community. When you know this early, you can resolve potential issues before you commit to the build process. Inevitably this saves money and energy later on. We can give you comprehensive advice when designing with odour mitigation in mind.

DEMONSTRATE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

If you need to demonstrate compliance with your environmental permit, you are probably coming to us with one of two scenarios.

First, you may have received complaints. In this case, you need evidence to prove or disprove those complaints. The regulator may have directed you to do this.

Second, you may recognise the benefits of being proactive. Can you demonstrate an ongoing record of odour management best practices? There are many reasons why this approach is a good idea.

Prove or Disprove Odour Complaints

By their nature, complaints are very subjective. But that does not mean you shouldn’t take them seriously. Even a single complaint can indicate a more significant issue, which you may not be aware of as the operator. The permitting authority responds to complaints in several ways to validate them. They might request odour logs from complainants or conduct site visits and field monitoring. Or, they may ask you to show that you have an effective odour management plan. Complaints can be highly valuable in forming your odour management plan.

You can improve your understanding of your emissions in several ways. For example, you will get a good analysis of the performance of your processes from an odour sampling survey and sniff survey. Or, if you want a complete picture of the impact on the surrounding area, you might consider odour dispersion modelling. You can use the data from these services to show whether complaints are justified. Not only that, but you can also use the data to demonstrate an adequate response, both for the permitting authority and, in extreme cases, in court. And, of course, you can improve your odour management plan even further by acting on the results.

Formulate an Odour Management Plan

A genuine commitment to minimising your impact in your locality is essential. Doing so will help your sites co-exist comfortably with the people around you. Not only that, but you show the regulator you are serious about complying with your environmental permits. The simplest way to demonstrate this commitment is to have an effective odour management plan. You can identify issues before they escalate and show commitment to good odour control. You could find an odour management plan very helpful in mitigating potential sanctions from unforeseen contraventions.

ACHIEVE PLANNING PERMISSION

Planning officers often demand evidence of the potential impact of odours on new housing and commercial developments. In the simplest terms – if you do not have a suitable odour assessment, you probably won’t receive planning permission. So it is vital to make sure you tick the right boxes.

Demonstrate Compliance with Planning Requirements

The service you need will, unsurprisingly, depend on the type of development. For smaller projects, an odour assessment survey will suffice. It is a qualitative assessment that assesses the impact of a proposed development. You will find this useful for small housing developments, single commercial properties, or changes to an existing commercial property.

You may need more detailed services to help understand the potential impact of more significant developments. For example, a sniff survey, odour sampling, or odour dispersion modelling. Our team will discuss your project’s specifics and advise on the best approach.

Conducting appropriate odour assessments will give you two outcomes. First, it will help you achieve planning permission. Second, it will help you demonstrate compliance with your planning permits on an ongoing basis. To reiterate, you should ensure you have an effective odour management plan at all times.

Resolve Odour Management Problems

USEFUL REFERENCES

Environment Agency
Additional guidance for H4 Odour Management – how to comply with your environmental permit

Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM)
Guidance on the assessment of odour for planning

ACHIEVE YOUR ODOUR MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES

We have probably covered some of the specifics of your odour challenges in this article. If so, please get in touch. Our odour experts are happy to explain more about how we can help you. On the other hand, there are always exceptions to the rule. We would love to hear from you if you have a more specific challenge we can help you with. Give us a call on 01525 860222 or contact us here.

Article updated 19th January 2022