Odor Problems
Breathing is not a choice, but many Allegheny County residents often wish that it was. Over the course of many years, GASP has consistently received odor complaints from the community. Recently, one individual who drives a bus each day in the Kennedy township area said that the air is just foul most afternoons. Another resident in this same area is selling her home and moving because of the odors. Others worry what health risk the chemicals causing the odors might pose, especially to children in schools in the area and the elderly. According to the Air Quality Division of the Allegheny County Health Department, there are 1100 air quality complaints in the county annually. What are residents to do?
The Allegheny County Health Department has a Foul Odor Hotline at (412) 687-2243, and residents should call this number not once but each and every time the outdoor foul odors occur. Inspectors may not know that an odor is continuing or recurring, so you AND your neighbors should call. You should also report the odors to GASP at (412) 441-6650 to let us know there is a problem.
In 2002, GASP pitched in to help relieve the problem in two ways:
- GASP sponsored several lively billboards and signs within bus shelters in communities on both shores opposite Neville Island to alert citizens to the Foul Odor Hotline.
- GASP made a proposal at the Allegheny County Air Pollution Control Advisory Committee (see proposal below) to purchase advanced odor detection equipment, using, if necessary, money from pollution fines held in the Clean Air Fund. After several sub-committee meetings, such a piece of equipment was identified and, happily, this proposal has been approved by both the Advisory Committee and pending a successful test run, by the Allegheny County Board of Health. This sensor is a portable piece of equipment producing a chromatograph of ambient chemicals. It can read in parts per billion and maintains calibration for months. Remember, if inspectors can determine what is in the air, it is a major step towards finding the source and requiring that source to prevent those emissions. It is against the Allegheny County Air Pollution Control regulations for malodors to be perceptible beyond property boundaries.
GASP Hotline articles
- Proposal on Odor Monitoring (Winter 2002)
Having a Bad Air Day? (Summer 2002)
GASP’s Odor Proposal to the Allegheny County Air Pollution Control Advisory Committee:
As residents often complain of malodors in Allegheny County and as they usually occur in the vicinity of industrial sources, which may be producing hazardous emissions, the complainants are entitled to know their chemical identity and source.
It is therefore proposed that whenever there are three odor complaints coming from the same area in a period of two hours, that Allegheny County Health Department Inspectors go to the area with equipment to identify and quantify, if possible, the chemicals responsible for the odors.
It is further proposed that if the required monitoring equipment is not presently at hand, it should be purchased using funds from the Allegheny County Clean Air Fund. If additional personnel should be needed to carry out this special monitoring, the associated cost should be obtained internally or by appropriation from the Clean Air Fund.
The results of these measurements and other relevant findings are to be reported to the complainants as soon as possible and to this Air Pollution Control Advisory Committee at least quarterly.