Odour and Fire Update July 2024

Fire Update – July 16, 2024

Yesterday, July 15, a fire occurred at the Calgary Composting Facility at the Shepard Waste Management Facility. 

Although the investigation is still underway, I wanted to share with you what we know so far. First and foremost, no injuries are reported, and everyone was evacuated safely. The fire is considered out. Calgary Fire Department crews responded to site and extinguished the fire.

At this time, we know there is damage to the Curing and Storage buildings at the site, however the impacts are confined to those buildings. These two buildings are tent-like structures used in the composting process.  They are connected through a conveyor system which is believed to have played a part in the fire. The operations contractor for the facility is currently responding to the immediate incident, and continuing to assess the situation.

Currently, there is no effect to green cart pick-up, and the facility is continuing to receive the green cart material. We will update this post when more information is available.

 

July Odour Update

There has been much progress as The City works to investigate and implement the many recommendations that came from last year’s odour investigation report. Here’s the latest status update on what is happening to mitigate odours:

What exactly is a biofilter?

We’re all familiar with changing out our furnace filters at home, but the biofilter at the Composting Facility takes things to a whole other level. The Composting Facility’s biofilter is a massive bed of wood chips – about 10,000 m3 or the equivalent of four Olympic swimming pools worth of wood chips.

The biofilter “scrubs” odour causing compounds out of the air before it is exhausted out of the facility. Sprinklers keep the wood chips at high humidity, and from there biology takes over. A biofilm forms in the moisture layer on the wood chips, and odour ‘eating’ bacteria live and thrive in this biofilm. Exhaust air from the Composting Facility is pushed under this bed of wood chips, and as it rises through the bacteria, it removes odour causing compounds from the air.

All this biological activity also means that the temperature of the biofilter stays quite hot, up to 40 degrees C year-round, even when it’s a polar vortex outside. You might see plumes of steam or water vapour if you drive past on a cold morning.

The biofilter wood chips were completely replaced in the spring of 2023. Following that replacement, the existing biofilter performance monitoring program was also upgraded.  This will allow us to keep an even closer eye on its performance and respond quickly if conditions are anything but optimal.

Tree planting around Shepard lagoons

The City is currently looking into tree planting as an odour mitigation option. Trees can act as a barrier to both operations and odourous air. A physical barrier causes dispersion of an air pocket as it is forced to move over or around the barrier.

 Staff are currently investigating options for how tree planting could work. An important consideration for the project is to ensure underground infrastructure is protected as tree roots could damage pipes and other equipment. Balancing the needs for existing City infrastructure and improving odours at the same time is a delicate task. This project is being reviewed to make sure a good balance between benefits and risks is achieved.

Odour Monitoring System

I'm especially looking forward to the implementation of the active real-time odour monitoring sensors. As smells can come and go quickly, this fixed system will work in real time to track odours continuously. This will allow us to better use the valuable data we've received through 311 (thank you again for your reports!). We will be able to combine your feedback with continuous weather and odour monitoring information to pinpoint the strongest odour sources. From there, we will be able to better target solutions.

The City received multiple proposals for an odour monitoring system. Experts in the field of odour monitoring will complete design and construction over the summer and fall this year. It is expected for the system to be up and running by end of 2024.

Composting Facility Expansion

We’ve received a lot of questions about how the compost facility expansion will help odours. As Calgary continues to grow, so will the demand for composting as well. This expansion has been carefully planned over several years to ensure ample processing capacity as our population increases. It may seem like expanded capacity is not a good thing for odours, but in fact, it will give greater flexibility in managing compost operations and optimizing composting conditions. Optimal composting conditions means minimal odours.

New anaerobic digestor technology is being added to the facility. This will be a fully enclosed system, where all gases that are produced will be captured for use, reducing odours that can escape.

All exhaust generated in the expansion will continue to be run through the extensive odour control systems in the facility. The bottom line? This expansion is all about keeping up with Calgary's growth and making sure odours don’t get any worse.

 

We’ve come a long way since the summer of 2022 when odours became a larger issue for the area. I’m happy to see (and smell) that things are getting a little bit better but there’s still work to do. 311 calls have dropped by about 25% this year and we hope to be able to keep lowering that number with the continuous improvements for the area.

If you do notice an odour in your area, please keep reporting in to 311. You can call anytime or use this handy online form here. The calgary.ca/odours website has recently been updated to help keep S.E. Calgary residents informed on the work in the area.

 

Previous blog posts:

Odour Update November 2023
Odour Update September 2023
Odour Update August 2023
Odour Update May 2023
Odour Update February 2023
SE Smells

  • Evan Spencer
    published this page in Blog 2024-07-16 16:32:14 -0600

connect