RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ODOR AND HYDROGEN SULFIDE EMISSIONS AT A WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT IN NEW YORK CITY

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been known for some time to be one of the main constituents of the odors from water pollution control plants. As such, H2S has sometimes been used as a surrogate for odor in assessing odor emissions from these plants. However, information on how closely H2S in actuality represents odor emissions for various odor sources in a water pollution control plant has been rather limited. Use of H2S as a surrogate was stimulated in part by the availability of a simple to use, portable, analytical instrument with selective response for H2S. The instrument, which measures a change in electrical resistivity caused by adsorption of H2S on a gold film, has a detectability limit in the low parts per billion range, close to the odor threshold of H2S. This paper presents the results of a recently conducted odor and H2S emission inventory for the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant, the third largest of New York City's fourteen plants. Odor samples, collected from all potentially significant odor sources at that plant, were analyzed both for hydrogen sulfide, using a gold film analyzer, and for odor concentration, using dynamic dilution olfactometry in accordance with the ASTM Recommended Method E-679-91. Odor samples from open liquid surfaces were collected using USEPA isolation flux chamber. The results illustrate good linear correlation between the response of the gold film analyzer and odor concentration for most types of odor sources in a water pollution control plant.