West Stockbridge — With the cannabis harvest season only weeks away, the Select Board was in the hot seat to announce a decision approving or denying grower Wiseacre Farm’s odor-mitigation plan, with that proposal having been under the microscope for months. On August 28, the group held a virtual public session with consultants Josh Rembusch, vice president of Wiseacre expert Byers Scientific, and Tech Environmental Vice President Mike Lannan, on behalf of the town’s third-party expert. Following their presentations and statements, the dais found common ground, approving an odor-mitigation plan for this season, with those results to set the stage for next year’s proposal.
The route to the decision
For about a year, residents of West Stockbridge and Richmond have voiced concern over cannabis odors emanating from the Baker Street facility, with those neighbors seeking a remedy, especially during the fall harvest season when those smells are most intense. Earlier this year, Wiseacre Farm, through its part-owner Jon Piasecki, unveiled an innovative odor-mitigation system promulgated by Byers in which air molecules containing a neutralizing agent, Ecosorb CNB 204, are deployed through nozzles running along the facility’s fence line. A large agricultural fan is then engaged to direct the cannabis’ malodorous particles into a downslope back corner of the facility’s field where they bind with the neutralizing agent to combat the offending smell. Rembusch spoke to residents and town officials in April at the cannabis site.
On July 1, Tech Environmental President Mike Lannan presented a review of the Byers proposal that covers part, or 20 percent, of the fence line with the nozzles. He recommended to the Select Board that, given the size of Wiseacre’s growing space, the facility employ a “continuous fence-line system” for odor control. Lannan questioned if, at 20 percent coverage, the partial-fence-line system and fan would be enough to deter the malodors in an outdoor facility.
Wiseacre is classified by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission as a Tier 11 facility, meaning the entire canopy the business will cultivate is between 90,000 and 100,000 square feet, with the growing area outdoors.
The “battle of the experts” was set in motion during the Select Board’s August 13 meeting, with members tabling a decision to a later date when they could hear from both experts at the same time. “We’ve had a lot of discussion over the last months regarding a lot of really highly technical stuff, and we seem to have multiple opinions in general,” Select Board Chair Andrew Potter said at the start of the recent session.
Amendments to existing plan, moving forward
The discussion included a focus on a video of a test of the system. That test video can be found here (courtesy of Wiseacre Farm). The video illustrates, with smoke, how the fan works to pull in the negative-odor molecules and neutralize the cannabis smell.
“Our team has actually identified and is recognized as discovering the compound in cannabis that’s responsible for … the cannabis odor,” Rembusch said. “With that information, we pioneered a series of air-sampling events.”
Rembusch and Lannan debated the merits of the test, with Lannan stating the test should have been performed in various locations on the expansive field to determine the true impact of the fan to draw in the malodors. Lannan also noted the calm conditions at the time of the test, with those conditions not always able to be maintained. He also questioned whether the fan would be run continuously, a measure that is warranted during the peak harvest time.
Prompted by Potter, Rembusch confirmed the product used in the plan is not toxic, listing its active agent for absorption as a blend of steam-distilled plant oils, or terpenes, and nonionic surfactants that allow the oil and water to mix.
According to Rembusch, all equipment needed for the plan is already on site and being installed so it can be operational in a couple of weeks when the cannabis odor is expected to increase. He suggested the fan operate in the mornings and evenings, monitoring feedback from the neighbors that may allow the hours of use to be altered accordingly. Wiseacre also employs a website for real-time comments from abutters affected by the smells. In conjunction with a weather station already in use on the facility, the fan and system can be modified to more accurately mitigate the offending odors, Piasecki said. He calculated his investment in the odor-mitigation plan to be about $200,000 to date and agreed to add a second fan if needed, but the general plan was never to obviate all odor as that is a “legal smell” in the new industry.
Piasecki anticipates the peak time for odors to be released by the plants to begin during the second week of September and last for about four weeks, with the harvest concluding at the end of October.
Lannan advocated Wiseacre create a continuous-fence-line system, an action the facility’s representatives objected to as it would result in a discharge of the neutralizing agent that wouldn’t be aimed at the area at issue. He also recommended Wiseacre run the fan continuously, a change Wiseacre’s team contended may create objectionable noise.
“I understand the concern with respect to noise, but I do think that odor will be the priority during a certain period of time, and I do worry about the buildup [of odor] in the area during certain weather conditions, so I don’t think it has to be continuous, but it should be fairly continuous during peak periods,” Lannan said. Odors are emitted over time pursuant to a bell curve as more plants are harvested, ramping up, until fewer plants remain to be harvested as the period ramps down, he explained.
This year’s data can help the town’s negotiations with Wiseacre for next year’s odor-mitigation plan, Lannan said. “They’ve agreed to what they’re going to install,” he said to town officials. “It would be my suggestion that you approve that so that the stuff does go in that they haven’t installed yet with respect to odor control for this year and then this could be revisited in the off-season, explore how well it worked and then take it from there.”
With unanimous consent, Select Board members approved amending the odor-mitigation plan to employ the fan on “a more continuous basis,” and “fairly continuous” during the fall season. Additionally, under the new terms, Wiseacre is obligated to provide a document specifying the amended odor-mitigation plan including its reporting website, fan use, and complaint or observation monitoring provisions.
“One thing we’ve lost now is a current mitigation plan, revised with all of the specs that have been talked about between Tech Environmental and Byers Scientific,” said Select Board member Kathleen Keresey. “I’d like to see maybe a document that specifies where we stand now in terms of what the current mitigation plan is.”
According to the amendment, the facility must also mail notices to abutters, as well as residents who have filed comments or complaints against the farm during the past year, as to how to access and use the complaint reporting website system, with that mailing list being provided by Wiseacre to Town Administrator Marie Ryan by September 6. Additionally, Wiseacre is required to now document all odor complaints and the facility’s response to each complaint, providing weekly reports with the information to Ryan by noon on Tuesdays through the end of the cultivation and harvest periods. This action is to begin immediately.
Although Lannan suggested the town monitor the odor by using an “n-butanol” scientific scale that compares the odor in the ambient air to the odor intensity within the substance providing the smell, that measure was not incorporated into the final odor-mitigation plan.
