Evaluating odour impacts from a landfilling and composting site:: involving citizens in the monitoring

The City of Montreal operates a large sanitary landfill site within a densely populated urban area. Adjacent to the landfill site is a yard waste composting facility that processes 10,000 metric tons per year using the windrow technique. Over the years, numerous complaints have been received from citizens in the surrounding area regarding odours, particularly during the fall period. Aware of this nuisance, the City of Montreal wanted to identify odour sources, management operations leading to odours, and weather conditions accentuating odours, as well as to quantify actual odour impact. Forty-three (43) citizens living adjacent to this site were recruited and trained to make odour observations during the fall of 2000. This paper presents the methodology used to select and train the citizens chosen to make odour observations, to quantify and to identify odours. It also presents the main results of the study.