Ten days ago, the European Parliament published the new Air Quality (AQ) Directive in the European Journal. This regulation applies to 32 countries under the European Environmental Agency (EEA) umbrella. Unfortunately, the odour is not even mentioned in this ambient air regulation. Therefore, European citizens and European industrial organizations are again left unprotected.

   Some months ago, we reviewed the draft proposal of this new European air regulation and we detailed the most relevant provisions for odour managers.  At that time, the question was whether this AQ Directive would incorporate any provisions regarding odour levels in ambient air. The recently published Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of 23 October 2024 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe does not.

   The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria has officially published the update of the Separation Distance and landfill buffer guidelines. These are two important documents that are aimed to town planners, industrial and residential developers and industrial contractors. The documents try to answer the important question: Are these odour concentrations in the background going to limit the uses of this development?

   A developer is preparing a proposal for the development of several residential dwellings that are located 600 metres from an existing industrial facility. The recommended separation distance from this facility is 500 metres. Will this proposal be approved? This and other questions are thoroughly addressed in the updated Separation Distance and the landfill buffer guidelines.