Proposed Andrade Road Composting Facility in Sunol, CA
Overview
In 2006, the Alameda County Waste Authority and Board in California proposed the construction of the Andrade Road Composting Facility in Sunol, CA. EnviroComp Consulting, Inc. was hired by a group of citizens in Sunol and asked to review the Draft and Final EIR (Environmental Impact Report) for the proposed facility and develop an opinion on the possible adverse impacts of the facility, with particular attention to odor problems.
EnviroComp's Role
We performed this study mostly pro-bono and testified at public hearings. Our findings showed that odors are, unquestionably, a major problem caused by composting units and that the Final EIR was deficient in addressing odor issues. We performed odor modeling runs for the proposed facility and found that, under all reasonable emission scenarios, a huge odor impact was found outside the facility and the protective odor value (7 times the odor threshold) was regularly exceeded at the fenceline. During the worst case scenarios, odor impacts could be found even a few miles downwind.
Some of our odor modeling results are illustrated in Figure 1, showing odor impacts at considerable distances impacting sensitive receptors in residential areas.
The Andrade Road Composting facility was not approved and a new, better location was eventually found.
Visuals
