Local authorities order Milpitas landfill operators to track odour chemicals with drones and monitors
Local authorities have ordered the operators of Milpitas' Newby Island landfill to track odour chemicals with drones and monitors. The US EPA does not regulate odour as a pollutant, the BBC reports, so each place decides what its sensors must lead to.
The Product Desk
Key figures for Des Moines: around $240,000 a year spent on technology to track odours; 100,000 people who can be in the odour plume if winds are from the wrong direction, per Dalton Jacobus; and a 10-mile radius holding about half a million people, per Jacobus.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Des Moines spend on odour-tracking tech, around | US$240,000 a year | 13 | |
| People who can be in the odour plume | 100,000 people | Wrong wind direction, per Jacobus | 15 |
| Radius holding about half a million people | 10 miles | per Jacobus | 14 |
What happened
- The operators were also told to automate the collection of the landfill gases responsible for the smells.
- The landfill covers 342 acres, and Milpitas residents have endured smells from industrial sites in the city for decades.
- The operators say they are committed to running the landfill safely and protecting air quality.
- In Des Moines, Iowa, monitors paired with a weather station give real-time readings of what each facility emits, based on wind patterns.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Officials and neighbours pushing for monitors have to decide up front who holds the data, because the two cases in the report put the sensors in different hands.
- What it costs cost Treatment that removes 90% or more of target compounds is expensive, and some operators choose cheaper sprays that odour consultant Micheal Bull says are unlikely to change the odours.
- What it limits constraint A landfill is among the hardest sources to treat because of its large surface, consultant Carlos Diaz told the BBC, so sensors can show a problem the operator cannot easily fix.
Chia-Ling Kong lives about half a mile from the dump [4]. Things have got better in recent years, she said, but she and her neighbours must still contend with around "two or three hours of bad smells a day" [4]. In our view, residents will judge the order by whether that number falls.
Kong's own hope is narrower. "Hopefully with this continuous monitoring, it makes it easier to pinpoint problems at the moment it starts," she said [5]. A sensor tells the operator and the neighbours when a release begins, and how large it gets depends on what the operator does next.
Residents count hours of smell. A reading helps them only if someone acts on it.
The BBC report describes one order [2] and one city programme [13]. It does not identify the agency behind the Milpitas order, the reading that would count as a breach, or any change in how regulators enforce.
Des Moines is the case with numbers. Dalton Jacobus, who works in the Department of Neighborhood Services, said: "What we wanted to do was build a ring of odour monitors around the facilities that we suspected of emitting odours" [12]. The authorities pay around $240,000 a year for that technology so they can take action [13]. "Within 10 miles, there's about half a million people," Jacobus said [14]. With the wind in the wrong direction, he said, 100,000 people can be in the middle of the odour plume [15]. That is roughly a fifth of the people in range [16]. The bill works out to about 48 cents a head across all of them [17].
For a rollout, we would sort any odour programme on two questions: who holds the sensors, and whether a stated reading carries a stated obligation to act. Operator-held sensors with a stated obligation give neighbours something to enforce. Operator-held sensors without one give the operator a log. Authority-held sensors with an obligation give a city evidence it can act on, and Des Moines says that is why it pays. Authority-held sensors without one give a map of the plume.
We would not sign off a programme until both answers are written down. The price is a slower start, because someone has to agree a threshold first. On the BBC's account, Des Moines belongs in an authority-held cell. Milpitas is operator-held on the first question, and the second is open.
What to watch
- Whether the Milpitas order attaches a reading threshold and a consequence to the monitors' data.
- Whether residents like Chia-Ling Kong report fewer than the current two or three hours of bad smells a day once monitoring starts.
- Whether the Newby Island operators add odour treatment beyond automated gas collection.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives35
- Confidence60
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Milpitas, a city in Silicon Valley, has an odour problem; for decades residents have endured rank smells from industrial sites, among them a 342-acre landfill.
- [2]
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.
- [3]
The landfill operators have also been told to automate the collection of landfill gases responsible for smells.
- [4]
Chia-Ling Kong, an engineer who lives around half a mile from the dump, says she and her neighbours must still contend with around "two or three hours of bad smells a day", though things have got better in recent years.
- [5]
Kong said: "Hopefully with this continuous monitoring, it makes it easier to pinpoint problems at the moment it starts."
- [6]
The operators of the landfill say they are committed to operating it safely and protecting air quality.
- [7]
In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate environmental odours as a pollutant, which leaves states and local governments to take charge of the issue.
- [8]
In Des Moines, Iowa, odour monitors that measure levels of chemical compounds in the air work with a weather station to provide real-time data on the concentrations coming from each facility based on wind patterns.
- [9]
Experts on fixing industrial odours say the best technologies, when used correctly, can remove 90% or more of the target compounds, but this can be expensive and some operators opt for simpler and cheaper solutions such as spraying deodorisers.
- [10]
Odour consultant Micheal Bull says of industrial-scale deodorising sprays: "In my view they're not likely to change the odours."
- [11]
Environmental consultant Carlos Diaz, based in Spain, says bad smells from waste sites are among the stinkiest and most difficult to resolve: "Landfill is difficult to treat because you have a very large surface."
- [12]
Dalton Jacobus, who works in the Department of Neighborhood Services, said: "What we wanted to do was build a ring of odour monitors around the facilities that we suspected of emitting odours."
- [13]
The Des Moines authorities are paying around $240,000 a year on technology to track the stink, so they can take action.
- [14]
Jacobus said: "Within 10 miles, there's about half a million people."
- [15]
Jacobus said that if the winds are out of the wrong direction, 100,000 people can be in the middle of the odour plume.
- [16]
The 100,000 people Jacobus says can be in the plume are roughly 20% of the half million within 10 miles.
- [17]
Des Moines' monitoring bill of about $240,000 a year works out to about $0.48 per person across the half million within 10 miles.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- bbc.co.ukLiving with a stink? Technology might help
1 article · October 15, 2026
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