Minutes - Public Works Committee - 04/20/2004

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Public Works Supervisor Riemer stated that in 2003 staff was asked to monitor odors coming from the Commercial Asphalt plant located at 14100 Basalt Street in Ramsey. Monitoring consisted of staff sniffing the air downwind of the plant twice a day and rating the odor on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the worst. Conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed were also recorded. This information was compiled and given to the Community Development Department for their records, and to see if ~ trend could be established that caused the odor to be stronger on some days more than others. Public Works Supervisor Riemer explained with the 2004 paving season quickly approaching staff would like to review this process with the Public Works Committee and see if staff should cOlJ.tinue the monitoring and if so, what changes if any, should be made to the process. The following is a list of possible changes developed by staff for consideration: . Stop monitoring the odor . Reduce monitoring from twice a day to once per day · Continue monitoring as before . Include a column on the daily report sheet to include production figures for the day · Require the business owner to hire an outside agency to monitor the plant odor using more sophisticated test equipment . City to purchase sophisticated test equipment for odor detection Chairperson Zimmerman commented sophisticated testing equipment is likely nullified if a human can smell the odors. Public Works Director Kapler explained staff is at a point that they want to provide whatever the Council needs to have in front of them to make a decision one way or another. If the Council needs what they provided last year, staff would be glad to continue that; if the Council thinks this is excessive they would gladly back off. In the minutes from the last discussions regarding this, it was mentioned there may be a correlation in the amount of product that is added each day, and Commercial Asphalt would likely fax staff the amount of daily product. Staff is looking for direction as to what the Council would like to see to make a decision. Councilmember Elvig commented he is not sure what it is they are going to gain or accomplish. They have a year of sniff tests, and they know all of the variables except the production level of what seems to cause higher odor versus lower odor. It seems they are talking about one or two residents that have complaints on this. Public Works Director Kapler replied that although that is the correct number of complaints, there were a couple of days last year when there was a temperature change and businesses complained. Councilmember Elvig questioned if the change in temperature seemed to cause the odor. Public Works Committee/April20, 2004 Page 2 of 16