The delicate balance of urban expansion, industrial odours and growing communities

The pressure of urban population growth is relentless. Populations of urban communities continue to grow in Europe, according to EuroStat, most rapidly in urbanised regions with at least one million people. On average, these areas have seen population increases of over 6% in the 4 years since 2014.

Urban expansion has widespread environmental consequences. Industrial operations originally built on the outskirts of communities continue to have their buffers encroached upon by suburban growth. Buffer distances are often designed to minimise the impact of industrial and agricultural odours on surrounding municipalities.

This creates a vulnerable situation for essential industries that growing communities rely on, in particular, wastewater treatment plants. Growing populations need larger facilities, while at the same time there is less clear space available to locate them.

For wastewater treatment operations in tight buffers, even the slightest change in weather can cause an odour incident that triggers community complaints. Inevitably, these complaints almost always lead directly to bad publicity in local press for the water utility involved, putting pressure on operators and staff.

These widespread community concerns, and odour regulations that are increasing in stringency across Europe and the UK, are pushing water utility companies to increase expenditure on odour control, or somehow find smarter solutions. Operations teams are also investing a large amount of their time conducting and commissioning investigations into the causes of odour incidents.

Urban environments in Europe, the UK and around the world are now faced with a Catch-22. As they continue to grow in areas with little space, industries providing essential services to these communities need to stay operational more than ever before. This brings to mind one question. How do they do so without impacting the community?

Traditional odour control methods aren’t achieving balance

Traditional ways of managing odour no longer deliver performance that the community is satisfied with. New methods of dealing with odour issues need to be geared towards helping businesses avoid impacts, but also must improve their operations by boosting efficiency. These methods should be supported by high quality analysis delivered straight to the people who need it, when they need it.

Water utilities are increasingly subject to costs related to unnecessary investment in expensive odour control technologies and detailed investigations into the sources of community complaints. To avoid these costs, businesses are now finding new ways to improve odour management performance without increasing ongoing operating costs.

As with most productivity and efficiency issues that businesses are facing today, technology is beginning to provide an answer for wastewater treatment facilities.

Responding to odour complaints while taking preventative action

Community complaints can overwhelm operations staff at wastewater treatment plants for a variety of reasons. They can be incredibly difficult to investigate and manage, possibly leading to facility shutdowns. It can take months to isolate the specific source of the issue.

Envirosuite’s instantaneous ‘backtracking’ of community odour complaints to pinpoint the issue that caused them allows wastewater treatment plants to confirm or exclude responsibility, run reporting, and enable action quicker than ever before.

Envirosuite’s weather models combine hyper-local forecast data with 3D spatial mapping and minute-level time stamping, so you can use the weather to your advantage. This allows operations teams to schedule activities at the right times to prevent impact on the community. Ultimately, Envirosuite will help to achieve better outcomes in shrinking buffer spaces and more demanding communities.