WINOOSKI - Nothing quite compares to the smell of hemp drying on a hot summer's day. Just ask the people of Winooski.
That's what a Free Press reporter did Thursday afternoon when visiting the site of a hemp-drying facility. Attempts to identify the scent yielded a few different possibilities: Cheese? Roasted vegetables? Just plain cannabis? Then a resident making her daily walk past the facility provided some insight.
"Sometimes it has kind of like a really earthy smell," Paige Feeser said, though other times it has smelled like manure. "Or just excrement."
It can be particularly strong during the late afternoons and early evenings, Feeser, who lives on Forest Street, said.
People in Winooski have complained of an odor wafting from the facility, located at 133 Elm St. in an offshoot from a residential area. The drying operations were supposed to last for three to four months until COVID-19 and "install hold ups" delayed the process, VT-CBD Labs explained in a public statement.
"We are sensitive to the concerns raised by our community and are working hard to resolve them. COVID-19 has created unusual circumstances in our business," the company wrote in an email to the Free Press.
Winooski addressed the subject during city council meetings in July and August. A few members of the public called in to comment on the smell. John Royer was one of them.
"We get this offensive odor almost daily down on West Canal Street," he said during the meeting on Aug. 3. "And at times we can't be outside when that's happening nor can we open our windows."
Tina Royer noticed the smell in March, she said during an interview with the Free Press. Initially she assumed the source of the scent could be from neighbors smoking cannabis. She started to suspect something else at play when the smell didn't go away.
"If I'm in my home and I have our windows open...and I'm on a conference call, I'm getting sick to my stomach and getting headaches from it," she said.
Can smell be a nuisance in Vermont?
The Unified Land Use and Development Regulations offer details on shielding properties from negative impacts at the hands of a nearby land-use operation, the city noted in an Aug. 3 statement on the matter.
This includes a section pertaining to emissions, which cannot give rise to:
- Property damage.
- A health hazard (to vegetation, animals and people).
- "Excessive soiling at any point on the property of others."
Winooski's statement on the issue noted agriculture and forestry uses are exempt in this section of the land use regulations and that Vermont considers hemp an agricultural commodity.
The Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, which regulates hemp, indicated that the drying might not be immune to local land use nuisance regulations, according to the city's statement on the matter.
Suzanne Blain, who lives on West Street in Winooski, described the scent as "rotting cat pee."
"And especially when COVID hit and we were home everyday, we would go on walks and then we would just smell this bad smell intermittently," she said.
Concerns surrounding the hemp smell aren't unique to Winooski. People in Pennsylvania and Virginia also took issue with the scents emanating from neighboring drying facilities.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. Mayor Kristine Lott wrote an email to the company on June 30, available on the city's website.
"Some folks are really distressed by the odor and it would be great to share with them that your operations will shift in the future, but there are also folks who are just genuinely curious. A resident down on Clifford St. just today told me she loves the smell and wondered where it was coming from."
How do you regulate a nuisance in Winooski?
It's not easy.
A lack of metrics to assess standards (think frequency, duration and intensity as examples) makes it hard to establish if a violation has occurred, according to the city's statement. But Winooski asked members of the public with "concerns about odors or other nuisance issues" to fill out an online form, so the city can compile a record in the event of enforcement.
Winooski received nine of these forms and 13 complaints over email related to the issue, based on information provided in an email Wednesday.
The city also connected with the Department of Environmental Conservation's Air Quality Compliance Division, according to the statement. This was to address "any enforcement actions or protocols they have in place to support enforcement" under the section of regulations pertaining to emission violations.
"Moving forward, staff will continue to explore how to measure, document, and evaluate the quality, intensity, or frequency of the offenses, including proximity to the source," the city wrote.
How long will the hemp smell stick around Winooski?
The pandemic slowed down operations so the hemp bales are sitting "longer than expected," the company said in its public statement.
"It is solely due to the fact that we were closed for a period of time and cut back to half production with COVID-19 guidelines being enforced in order to go back to work," VT-CBD Labs stated regarding the odor.
VT-CBD Labs pointed to the recent outbreak in Winooski as an additional hindrance to its operations. Officials a few months ago tied the city to an outbreak of more than 30 cases, which spread to other spots including Burlington. Officials made an announcement in August that the outbreak had concluded, totaling 117 cases.
More: Burlington-Winooski COVID-19 outbreak formally closed, city, health officials say
The Free Press emailed questions to the city and received the following updates Wednesday:
- The facility does not qualify for an agricultural exemption, based on Winooski's conversations with the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.
- Winooski sent a Notice of Violation around Aug. 10 to the facility tenant.
- This was based on Winooski's Unified Land Use and Development Regulations, as well as Vermont Statutes related to enforcement penalties and remedies.
- "Verbal indications" noted that the drying will be completed by the end of August.
Looking ahead the company plans to dry between October and February.
"We expect that in the future that most of our work will be done during months when windows are closed and any odors will have minimal or no impact on our neighbors," the company wrote in its email.
Contact Maleeha Syed at mzsyed@freepressmedia.com or 802-495-6595. Follow her on Twitter @MaleehaSyed89.
This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a subscription to the Burlington Free Press.
"smell" - Google News
August 24, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/3lgqtIn
Smell something? Winooski residents living next to a hemp-drying facility do - Burlington Free Press
"smell" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35zrwu1
https://ift.tt/3b8aPsv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Smell something? Winooski residents living next to a hemp-drying facility do - Burlington Free Press"
Post a Comment