Sewer Odour Abatement Practises – an Australian Survey

Odorous emissions from sewer systems can cause an impact to local communities. A survey of 9 Australian wastewater utilities that serve over 8.4 million people and operate over 59,000 km of sewer networks was undertaken to assess the current management practises used for sewer odour abatement. The survey results indicated that activated carbon based systems are the most common, most processes are passive flow and are maintained in some form, but most are not being routinely maintained and monitored solely through community complaints. Activated carbon media is generally replaced in a reactive manner following failure and the receipt of complaints. H2S is the dominant online and offline monitoring parameter with limited use of non-H2S odorant analysis and low level of process control used in odour abatement. There were significant limitations in the industry’s ability to provide fundamental process data such as process age and flow for processes supplied by forced ventilation, in addition to process design data (design criteria and input characterisation), operating costs data, and process monitoring/complaints data.