Cargueros: “Over the Montains in a “silla”

Setback distances are determined on the basis of a graph relating ‘pig units’, equivalent to a fattener, to setback distances. Different curves are given, depending on the land use in the vicinity. Different graphs have been used since the first publication of a guideline of this type, in 1971. Currently the graphs from the 1985 guideline are prescribed, providing graphs for production units of up to 2,500 pig units (equivalent to fatteners). A new guideline was proposed in 1995, with an identical set of setback distance curves. However, the description of categories of land use to which these curves were to be applied was modified, effectively leading to a more lenient policy on pig odours. However, the guideline as revised in 1995 has been judged to be too lenient in a number of cases by the State Council, the appeal court for planning decisions. A policy review by the Ministry of Public Planning and the Environment is now ongoing

(1999-2001). This review, which involves detailed research into the actual annoyance experienced at different levels of exposure to pig odours, is expected to lead to a more restrictive system based on air quality criteria.

A more detailed description, including the distance graph, is given in Annex A.2.

7.3.3 United Kingdom

The Environmental Protection Act of 1990 provides the legal framework for avoiding and controlling odour nuisance in the United Kingdom. The Environmental Health department of the Local Authority is responsible for its enforcement. Under Part III, Section 79 of the Act, the local authority has a duty to inspect their area and detect any statutory nuisance. Reasonably practicable steps are to be undertaken to investigate complaints by residents made to them.

Where a local authority Environmental Health Department is satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists, or is likely to occur or recur, it has a duty to serve an abatement notice under Part III, Section 80 of the Act requiring:

• the abatement of the nuisance or prohibiting or restricting its occurrence or recurrence; and

• the execution of such works and the taking of such other steps as may be necessary for these purposes. When appropriate action is not taken as a result of an Abatement Orders, significant fines of up to 20,000 pounds can be imposed.

The law on statutory nuisance is far from straightforward. A key problem is that no criteria are provided to decide when occurrence of an odour constitutes a nuisance, and when it is acceptable. The system relies heavily on the individual judgement of the Environmental Health Inspector. In practice a wide variety of licence conditions occur.

Planning consents have to be granted on the basis of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order of 1995 (GPDO). New livestock facilities, such as livestock buildings, slurry storage

facilities, and extensions or alterations to such facilities, need planning permission when these will be within a distance of 400 m from the boundary of any protected buildings (such as residential houses or schools). Under the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations of 1988 an environmental assessment is to be carried out for certain types of major project which are likely to have significant effects on the environment. For livestock units this requirement is likely to apply to new pig units of more than 400 sows or 5000 fatteners and new poultry units of more than 100,000 broilers or 50,000 layers. In planning procedures, the use of odour modelling with application of a criterion of 5 ouE/m3as a 98-percentile

of hourly values has been accepted as an acceptable approach to demonstrate that no statutory nuisance would arise, in a planning enquiry involving a wastewater treatment plant at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, planning reference APP/F2930/A/92 206240, UK, 1993[16].

The main document providing guidance is:

• The Air Code, Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the protection of Air, revised 1998, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Welsh Office Agriculture Departments, October 1998.

The Code provides general guidance on the legal background, and on good practice for production., The main part of guidance on odours is given in Part B of the Code, which contains a wealth of sound general advice, but is remarkably limited on technical detail and quantitative assessment and management information. The Code does not contain any specific recommendation on setback distances, other than suggesting that any pig unit located at less than 400 metres from residences should take extra care in implementing the advice given in the Code.

For details on the Code of Practice, see Annex A.3.

7.3.4 United States of America

America vary from state to state. The main legal basis for the regulations is the nuisance law. Various states have guidelines specifically aimed at managing odour emissions from pig units. In Annex A.4 a guideline issued by the EPA in Texas[17] _{is described in more}

detail.

In 1994, the American Society of Agricultural Engineers indicated that a ‘desirable distance’ for siting livestock facilities in general is 1600 meters from housing developments and 400 to 800 meters from neighbouring domestic dwellings.

The EPA guidance indicates that the setback distance should be at least 3.6 kilometres and preferably 7.2 kilometres for ‘larger facilities’.

Details on US swine odour guidelines are provided in Annex A.4.

7.3.5 New Zealand

A detailed Code of Practice is applied in New Zealand, within the general legal framework of the nuisance law. The New Zealand Code of Practice (CoP) contains two types of setback distances:

• Fixed setback distances, that must be observed in all cases, regardless of the size of the production unit • Adjustable setback distances that depend on the size

of operation and a set of correction factors for site- specific operational characteristics.

The adjustable setback distances must be applied to pig production units with 2000 pigs or more.

For any piggery of more than 5000 pigs, the potential to create adverse effects needs to be determined on an individual case basis. The size of the buffer zone for such a piggery is determined to reflect this assessment. Setback distances are determined on the basis of the P- factor, which counts all pigs older than 70 days. Breeding units with weaners only are counted using a conversion of 1 breeding sow = 5 pigs.

For an integrated unit of approximately 400 sows (2000 P-units in New Zealand), setback distances in excess of between 500 and 2000 meters would apply, depending

on land use in the vicinity. Obviously, the New Zealand setback distances are quite strict, reflecting the availability of land and the high priority given to environmental quality in that country.

For details on the New Zealand Code of Practice, see Annex A.5.

7.3.6 Comparison of setback distances in different