HK$3m odour sniffers for Tseung Kwan O landfill and town
Two electronic odour detectors will be installed in the Tseung Kwan O landfill and nearby new town to assess the source of smells in a scientific manner, Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah said yesterday.
Speaking at a Legislative Council question-and-answer session, Mr Yau said the government was willing to introduce a trial of the detectors amid complaints from Tseung Kwan O residents, even though the technology was not yet widely in use.
'Currently, the [Environmental Protection Department] is discussing with an overseas odour expert a trial scheme for the detection and measurement of odour nuisance at the landfill and Tseung Kwan O town,' he said.
The detector, known as e-noses and developed in Canada, measures the levels of pre-determined chemicals. The data would be transmitted to an air-dispersion computer model using real-time atmospheric data for analysis, offering the opportunity to track the odours.
Mr Yau expected that two detectors would be installed this year and the Sai Kung District Council would be consulted on the further operation details of the detectors.
The trial cost, estimated to be around HK$3 million, would be paid by the Environmental Protection Department.
The Tseung Kwan O landfill is one of the most visited waste dumps in the city. The total number of waste loads hit 390,000, or more than 1,000 trips a day, last year.
Mr Yau also said many measures had been used in the past two years to minimise noise nuisances.
He said the odour might not necessarily come from the landfill, as it could also come from the waste trucks or foul sewers.
Meanwhile, Mr Yau yesterday reported that no unusual change in water quality had been found after a Shenzhen landfill leakage two weeks ago.
Environmental monitoring at 10 locations along the Shenzhen River and Deep Bay would continue.
