Odor Impact Distance Guideline for Swine Production Systems

Abstract

The determination of odor-based setbacks for swine facilities is an important issue for the pork production industry. Sufficient setbacks prevent costly nuisance complaints and lawsuits, and excessive setbacks stifle expansion. Therefore, a science-based setback estimation tool to guide and educate livestock producers and regulators is needed. This paper describes a new simple-to-use, site-specific setback guideline developed specifically for U.S. swine production facilities. The guideline at least partially accounts for wind frequency, land use, topography, orientation and shape, facility size, building design and management, manure handling characteristics, and odor abatement effectiveness. Odor emission factors were based in part on actual odor emission measurements in commercial swine nursery and finishing buildings. The Gaussian atmospheric dispersion model was used to conduct sensitivity analyses on certain aspects of the setback guideline. The guideline is now a planning and educational tool for determining odor impact distance from swine facilities. An interactive version of the guideline has been published on the World Wide Web at www.agairquality.com.

Diurnal Odor, Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Carbon Dioxide Emission Profiles of Confined Swine Grower/Finisher Rooms

“…Note that the Chillgard RT refrigerant monitor (NH 3 sensor) had a high immunity to interferences with H 2 S. When 10 ppm of H 2 S was presented to the sensor, the NH 3 sensor gave an equivalent response of 0.5 ppm. In fact, the H 2 S concentrations inside the barn were much lower than 1 ppm so that the electrochemical sensors for NH 3 …”

“…At present, most existing setback distance guidelines in Europe, Australia, and North America are all based on experience. [1][2][3][4] It should be noted that it is almost impossible and impractical to generate setback distances merely based on experiments because every odor and gas source is different, every surrounding area is different, and weather conditions change constantly. Therefore, to determine science-based setback distances, air dispersion models should be used to estimate downwind odor and gas concentrations from livestock operations.…”

Annual Variations of Odor Concentrations and Emissions from Swine Gestation, Farrowing, and Nursery Buildings

“…Researchers have been using air dispersion models to estimate reasonable setback distances between the livestock operations and neighboring residences; however, the results have not been well accepted yet. [1][2][3][4][5] One of the main reasons is the limited odor emission data available to be used in the modeling. The odor emissions depend on many factors, including building characteristics, ventilation rates, animal size and density, diet, weather conditions, manure handling systems, etc., and are highly variable with large diurnal and seasonal fluctuations.…”

“…The odor emissions depend on many factors, including building characteristics, ventilation rates, animal size and density, diet, weather conditions, manure handling systems, etc., and are highly variable with large diurnal and seasonal fluctuations. [6][7][8][9][10][11] Odor emission rates have been measured more or less randomly and the means or geometric means of these limited measured odor emission data were used as representative values in odor dispersion and setback modeling without considering the diurnal and seasonal variations, 2,4,5 which may result in great uncertainties of setback distance calculation. Hence, it is necessary to quantify seasonal variations of odor emissions from livestock farms in order to provide accurate emission data for air dispersion modeling and setback determination.…”

Odor Flux Measurements at a Facultative Swine Lagoon Stratified by Surface Aeration

“…Heber, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907;phone: 765-494-1214;fax: 765-496-1115;e-mail: heber@purdue.edu. ments of odor emission from stratified facultative lagoons (Schulz and Barnes, 1990) have been published. Field measurements of the character and quantity of odor emissions from outdoor storage and treatment facilities are also needed to further develop setback guidelines and atmospheric dispersion models (Schauberger and Piringer, 1997;Lim et al, 2000) and to evaluate odor abatement technologies such as aeration, solids separation, and covers (Ritter, 1989;Pain and Bonazzi, 1993;Zhang et al, 1996). Therefore, the objectives of this study were to: 1.…”