Living with a stink? Technology might help
Source: BBC ·
Smells from rubbish dumps and industrial facilities are being more carefully monitored.
From the source
The operators of Newby Island landfill have been ordered to take action over odours Milpitas, an affluent city in California's Silicon Valley tech hub, has an odour problem. For decades, residents have had to endure rank smells wafting from industrial sites, among them a 342-acre landfill. "When I first moved here, I could not open my window for over 10 years," says Chia-Ling Kong, an engineer for a tech firm who lives around half a mile from the dump. While things have got better in recent years, Kong says she and her neighbours must still contend with around "two or three hours of bad smells a day". Perhaps befitting Silicon Valley, the community is putting its hopes in technology. The operators of Newby Island landfill have been ordered by local authorities to use drones and install monitors to systematically track and measure the chemicals responsible for bad odours. They have also been told to automate the collection of landfill gases responsible for smells. Kong is optimistic a…