Online: The Five Year Report of the Committee.

Community odour monitoring

An odour monitoring study using local residents is underway around three swine production sites (farrowing, nursery, and finishing) of a 5,000 sow farrowing to finishing operation in Rama, Saskatchewan.

The University of Saskatchewan odour research group, the Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee, and the Alberta Odour Control Team have collaborated on this project. The objectives of this project are:

• To monitor the odour exposure levels of the residents in the vicinity of intensive livestock operations (ILOs) regarding frequency, intensity, duration and offensiveness using trained resident odour-observers;
• To monitor yearly odour emission profiles from the ILOs;
• To validate odour dispersion models for predicting odours in the vicinity of ILOs.

There are two stages for this project. Stage 1 was a preliminary survey initiated by the Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee and was conducted from December 2001 to February 2003. Fifty residents from 39 families living within five miles of the three sites were voluntarily trained as odour observers and participated to various degrees in odour monitoring at their residences since December 2001.

From December 2001 to December 2002, 24 families detected a total of 319 swine odour events. The preliminary observations are:

• The highest odour season was from May to July in this area in 2002;
• The majority of odours (61%) were detected during the early morning, evening or night;
• No correlation was found between the distance between residence and the swine site and number of odour events detected and number of odour days;
• Odour intensity readings seem to be subject to an individual’s perception of odours;
• Odour occurrence frequency is inversely linear to the wind speed;
• The following factors may affect detected odour frequencies: direction of the residence from the odour source, living style/habit of the residents, and olfactoral sensitivity of the residents.

Funded by Sask Pork, Saskatchewan Agricultural Development Fund, and Alberta Odour Control Team, the second stage of this project started in March 2003 and will end in April 2004.

Another odour training workshop was provided in April 2003. Currently, there are about 37 individual residents participating in the study. They record odour events during their daily activities. The data recorded include odour intensity on a 0 to 5 n-butanol scale, occurrence time and a general statement about the odour, and their own physical conditions.

To take additional measurement of the downwind odour plume and also to obtain unbiased data, two nasal rangers from outside of this area were hired to monitor odours in this area from May to October 2003.

Weather data is being recorded by an on-site weather station. Odour emission rates from the swine production sites are being measured once a month. Diurnal odour emission profiles of six different odour sources were measured in the summer of 2003.

A final report will be submitted in August of 2004.

Map of the SCWMC air sampling area (253 Kb)