Odor issues continue for rendering plant
By Wesley DeBerry, SacBee.com
Local residents continue to have complaints about a Sacramento County rendering plant, a battle that is about a decade old.
The aroma from the plant’s daily operation of recycling animal waste materials is a nuisance to some nearby residents, who have moved into new homes.
Rendering plant officials declined to comment. When the issue was first raised by developers in the early 1990s, they argued that the plant has the right to continue to operate because it was there first.
The Sacramento Rendering Co. has occupied its 11350 Kiefer Blvd. site since 1955, long before there were any housing developments in sight.
Anatolia residents Jared and Cari Ricci said they have noticed an unpleasant odor during the evening hours on average a couple of times a week.
“It’s usually gone by the morning,” Jared Ricci said.
Mather resident Nancy Sweet said the smell has lessened since she first moved to community in 2005. However, she said, a couple of times a week she will notice a foul smell.
Some residents have filed complaints with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, the agency that enforces state and federal air quality standards. The rendering company does have equipment to minimize odors, officials said.
They also said they don’t expect the issue to go away anytime soon.
The plant has an oxidizer that is similar to an air purifier that heats up the fumes from plant production.
“A lot of those things that we think of as being odors are often times flammable.” said Mark Loutzenhiser, program supervisor at the air quality district. “So if you burn them, you can break them down from whatever their formula was into carbon dioxide so you hopefully don’t smell it.”
The plant also has scrubbers, to help fight odors. The scrubbers are liquid-filled cylinders in which operational gas enters and is absorbed.
Paul Niemann of Kavala Ranch moved just down the road from the rendering plant one month ago. He said he hasn’t smelled anything.
However, there were 165 recorded complaints in 2007 and 23 complaints so far this year, according to air quality records.
Loutzenhiser said the number of complaints from residents has put the plant “basically under a microscope.” On average, a normal source is inspected once a year.
But the rendering company had 23 units inspected over 11 days in in 2007 and 19 units inspected so far in 2008 over eight days, according to air quality records.
Seven violations were recorded in 2007, according to air quality records. The plant has had no violations in 2008. A single malfunctioning pressure gauge can cause a violation, officials said.
“Even if they have a permit violation, it may not mean that the process wasn’t working properly,” said Christina Ragsdale, program coordinator for the air quality district.
Despite all the regulations, inspections and complaints, a foul odor radiated near Kiefer Boulevard by the plant on Thursday evening.
“People think, ‘Why can’t you stop it from smelling?’ Well, it’s complicated,” Ragsdale said.
