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photos clearly showed residential housing nearby. Staff contacted all 5 <br />communities to inquire if any complaints were received regarding these uses. <br />The Cities of Minneapolis, Minnetrista, and Duluth responded and reported no <br />complaints. Staff specifically inquired about odor and all three communities <br />reported no odor incidents. It should be noted that all 5 of these facilities are <br />human crematories, which use retorts much larger than the applicant is <br />proposing and would have much greater emissions and opportunities for odor. <br /> <br />Because all 5 of these examples were human crematories, staff wanted to locate <br />a pet crematory near a residential area to determine if any odor or any other <br />incidents have occurred. Staff located a business call Forever Friends in Green <br />Bay, Wisconsin. This business has two single family homes to the direct north <br />(approximately 100’ away), a day care and restaurant to the east, and other <br />single family homes and commercial uses to the south. Staff inquired with the <br />City of Green Bay, who issued a Special Use Permit in 2002. The business is <br />going on its 9th year and no complaints have been filed with the City. Staff then <br />inquired with the operator to determine what their experience has been with <br />regard to pet cremations. This operator uses almost the exact same technology <br />the applicants wish to use, except Forever Friends uses a 400 lbs max machine <br />(the applicant’s machine has a max weight of 200 lbs). This operator conducts <br />4,000 pet cremations a year and has never experienced odor issues or any other <br />mechanical incidents. This operator acknowledged the biggest concern is with <br />storage of the animals in advance of the cremation. This operator uses a walk-in <br />freezer but indicated a deep freeze, as proposed by the applicant, would be <br />sufficient. <br /> <br /> HOW DOES THE MPCA DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT A PERMIT IS REQUIRED & <br />WHAT ARE THE MPCA STANDARDS <br /> <br />Staff inquired with an environmental engineer at Barr Engineering on what the <br />MPCA process is for determining whether or not a permit is required for any <br />emissions created by the retort. The MPCA accepts manufacturer information <br />regarding emissions to determine if the levels produced are below the threshold <br />for requiring a permit. These manufacturer specifications are signed off by a <br />licensed engineer. The engineer at Barr indicated this is an acceptable practice <br />in the industry and is not abused. Staff also requested a 3rd party stack analysis, <br />which was provided and is discussed further on in this memo. <br /> <br />The MPCA’s biggest concern isn’t necessarily what is coming out of the stack, <br />but rather what is the temperature at the time it is released from the stack and <br />the velocity by which it propels up into the air. This is because if the stack <br />emission is hot enough and buoyant enough, once released into the atmosphere <br />it will dissolve with enough air to not cause health or environmental impacts. If <br />the emission isn’t hot enough or released at an adequate velocity, there will be <br />downwash, which then has the potential to cause harm by humans breathing the <br />emission in or building mechanical systems sucking the emission in.