Chile’s first odour standard is announced: it regulates emissions from the pig sector

Earlier this week, the first environmental standard for odors in Chile was published in the Official Gazette.
This is the Odour Emission Standard for the Pig Sector, whose main objective is to protect the health of the population living in the vicinity of pig farms, to improve their quality of life.
This standard is expected to prevent and control the emission of odors in pig farms by establishing technological improvements. Its scope extends to the entire national territory and will apply to pig farms that have more than 750 animals.
“We are working to improve the quality of life of people throughout the country. Therefore, we are happy to announce the first odor standard in Chile, a first step to advance environmental justice in rural sectors, which is where the pig farms are located,” explained the Undersecretary of the Environment, Maximiliano Proaño.
The authority stressed that “the norm establishes clear guidelines for pig farms and delivers certainties. It will promote the implementation of new technologies and the improvement of operational practices in pig farms, with the aim of improving the sustainability of production and reducing its impact on surrounding communities and the environment.”
Details of the standard
Considering the diversity of sizes of the existing schools in Chile, the standard proposes a categorization by number of animals, in order to establish minimum technological floors (limit requirements) per category.
In addition to the above, for all schools operational practices and periodic reporting requirements are established.
Its categorization is determined as follows: A small source of emission is considered to be schools with 750 to 25,000 pigs; medium, from 25,000 to 50,000 and large, all greater than 50,000 animals.
The control and supervision of the future regulation will be by the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA), an entity that will also coordinate the reporting system that allows the self-control of companies and that has updated information.
It should be borne in mind that, after noise, odors are the second most reported cause to the SMA (13% of complaints).
In addition, today was also published in the Official Gazette the draft of the second environmental standard of odors. This is the odour emission standard for the fishing sector, which will begin its public consultation stage next Monday, January 13.

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Original source in Spanish