Residents Have Endured Landfill Odors for Years

Residents have long complained about odors from industrial sites in and around Milpitas, including the 342-acre Newby Island Landfill.

“When I first moved here, I couldn’t open the windows for over 10 years,” said Chealin Kong, an engineer at a high-tech company who lives about half a mile from the landfill.

Although conditions have improved in recent years, Kong says she and her neighbors still experience “two to three hours of bad smells a day.”

New Technology Will Monitor Odor-Causing Chemicals

Perhaps fittingly for Silicon Valley, the community is looking to technology for solutions.

Operators of Newby Island Landfill have been ordered by local authorities to use drones and install monitoring equipment to systematically track and measure the chemicals responsible for the odors. They have also been directed to automate the collection of odor-causing landfill gases.

Kong is optimistic that continuous, data-driven monitoring will help officials and operators respond more quickly.

“We hope that this continuous monitoring will make it easier to identify problems the moment monitoring begins.”

Landfill operators say they are committed to operating the site safely and protecting air quality.

Communities Around the World Are Fighting Bad Odors

Milpitas is not alone. Communities around the world are speaking out against odors that make daily life difficult. The sources can include garbage dumps, sewage treatment plants and factories.

Once complaints begin to accumulate, resolving them is not always easy. In many countries, there are no regulations governing how environmental odors should be managed.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate environmental odors as pollutants. As a result, responsibility for addressing the problem falls to state and local governments.

Urban Growth Is Bringing Homes Closer to Smelly Facilities

Urban sprawl is often part of the problem, bringing communities closer to facilities that have traditionally been kept away from residential areas.

As a result, demand is growing for technologies that can monitor and prevent unpleasant odors. Odor consultant Michael Bull says people are becoming increasingly concerned about bad smells in their neighborhoods.

“Developments are being built near smelly processes…Land is becoming more valuable, so there is also reclamation,” Bull says.

Although Bull is describing his experience in the UK, the same pattern is emerging in many parts of the world.