Minneapolis nuisance odors How bad is that smell? June 4 . 2018 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Minneapolis nuisance

• dors

How bad is that smell?

June 4 . 2018

Odors

• Odor is the most complex of our senses.
• It can trigger strong emotional responses.

Odors are a local issue

• Not regulated under the Clean Air Act by the EPA
• Regulated by MPCA from 1970 until 1996
• MPCA regulates H2S and VOCs
• Counties regulate feedlots
• Municipalities address as nuisance laws

Current state in Minneapolis

• 47.110. Public nuisance prohibition and
• abatement. (a) It shall constitute a public nuisance

and be unlawful for any person to make, continue, permit, or cause to be emitted into the open air any dust, gasses, fumes, vapors, smokes and/or

• dors with objectionable properties and in such

quantities as would be likely to cause discomfort or annoyance to a reasonable person of normal sensibilities that does one (1) or more of the following:

Odors are a nuisance if

• Odors shall be deemed unlawful if one (1) or more

air contaminants migrate from the premises from which it originated for a period exceeding thirty (30) minutes' duration and interferes with the reasonable and comfortable use and enjoyment of property

What is a reasonable person?

• People respond differently to smells
• People have different tolerances and thresholds
• Very subjective
• Smelling something is not a violation: how bad is

bad?

• Current SOP used to define what is bad

Field Olfactometer

• Nasal Ranger
• Concept developed by the U.S. Public Health

Service

• Brings in clean, filtered air and mixes it with target

air at specific ratios.

• Dilutions to threshold (D/T)
• Nuisance level defined at 7 D/T
• Certified noses

June 4, 2018

Nasal Ranger

June 4, 2018

Current ordinance

• Odors shall be deemed unlawful if one (1) or more

air contaminants migrate from the premises from which it originated for a period exceeding thirty (30) minutes' duration and interferes with the reasonable and comfortable use and enjoyment of property

June 4, 2018

Proposed change

• Odors shall be deemed unlawful if one (1) or more air

contaminants migrate from the premises from which it

• riginated for a period exceeding thirty (30) minutes'

duration and interferes with the reasonable and comfortable use and enjoyment of property that can be confidently detected at a Dilution to Threshold (D/T) ratio of seven (7) dilutions of filtered to contaminated air or greater by an authorized City of Minneapolis staff member using a field olfactometer at the nearest point

• f human activity on an adjacent property with an

initial observation followed by a second observation at least fifteen (15) minutes later within a one hour period.

June 4, 2018

Proposed change

• (1) Injures or are sufficient to injure the health or

safety of any person or the public;

• (2) Creates an obnoxious odor in the atmosphere as

defined by 47.150;

• (3) Causes damage to property;
• (4) Creates a nuisance or hazard by obscuring

vision; or

• (5) Produces a deleterious effect upon trees, plants
• r other forms of vegetation.

June 4, 2018

Point of Compliance

• (b) Characteristics and conditions which shall be

considered in determining whether an emission is discomforting, annoying, objectionable, obnoxious,

• r excessive for the purposes of paragraph (a) of

this section shall include, but not be limited to the following:

• (1) Proximity of the emission to the nearest point of

habitation human activity;

June 4. 2018

Summary

June 4. 2018

• Define what is a reasonable person standard using field olfactometery.
• Change point of habitation to point of human activity.
• Change odor duration 30 minutes to 15 minutes.