Causing a stink: B.C. could put forward cannabis emissions regulation by year-end

Cannabis producers in B.C. may be forced to stop and smell the grass… and then make sure no one else can.

The smell produced by cannabis production is at the heart of a Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) staff recommendation for the Climate Change Action Committee to green light suggestions to proceed with a public consultation that, within the year, could result in a proposed regulation requiring cannabis producers to undertake significant upgrades and purchase new equipment.

A rose (or bud) by any other name

Some licensed producers, however, believe those concerns smell, well, fishy. “Reasonable regulations that balance community impact with industry growth are obviously desirable,” says Dan Sutton, CEO of Vancouver-based cannabis cultivator, Tantalus Labs.

Sutton points out, however, that the smell from cattle and other odour-intensive farming is not regulated. “Farms create odour, and are lawfully entitled to by the Right to Farm Act. Why would we impose different standards on cannabis, a crop that is likely to be the most economically productive farming activity in B.C. by a substantial margin in the next five years?”

Marijuana Business Daily Canada reported last year that B.C. was expected to have about 725,000 recreational cannabis users in the first year of legalization, growing to 800,000 by 2021. Based on cannabis consumption in the province increasing to 103,000 metric tons, the thought was that cannabis could bring in $75 million dollars annually in tax revenue from legal sales of about $1 billion. In early April, it was reported that though B.C.’s legal cannabis market could reach $722 million by 2024, the illegal market was expected to serve as a drag on growth.

Based on cannabis consumption in the province increasing to 103,000 metric tons, the thought was that cannabis could bring in $75 million dollars annually in tax revenue from legal sales of about $1 billion.

Evan Davies, a cultivation consultant with Cannabis Compliance Inc., based in Mississauga, Ont., notes that poultry, mushroom and dairy barns can all have an odour associated with them. “Can you see the comedy in asking these farmers to install odour control on their operations?”

In its submission to the 13 members of the MVRD’s Change Action Committee, which includes representatives from Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond, district staff noted that emissions from cannabis production include volatile organic compounds (VOC) that can contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter. The Regional Ground-level Ozone Strategy for the Canadian Lower Fraser Valley, adopted by the MVRD board in 2014, identifies reduction of VOC, particularly in the western part of the Lower Fraser Valley, as important.

Staff went on to point out in the submission that the VOC emissions from cannabis production can cause a stink in more ways than one: member municipalities have already received complaints about odorous emissions from cannabis production. Committee members were further given a copy of the report, Consultation on a Cannabis Production Emission Regulation for Metro Vancouver.

Options to keep the stink down

That report highlights a number of options producers can use to control odours. These include activated carbon filters, which adsorb and remove VOC; biofilters, a filtration system that uses microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi to remove odorous contaminants from an air stream; and plant-based odour neutralizers that rely on natural plant oils to interact with and alter VOC emitted by cannabis so that it is no longer odorous.

Federal law currently requires each cannabis producer to submit HVAC (heating, air conditioning and refrigeration) documentation with each application to demonstrate it has an air filtration system in place. While acknowledging “Health Canada has some regulations to prevent escape of odours,” Roger Quan, director of air quality policy and climate change with the MVRD in Vancouver, says “we want to be more definitive.”

Tantalus Labs has an odour-filtration technology in place that Sutton believes is the most effective in the Lower Mainland. “It has been functioning at an elite level since inception. Odour is not detectable in our parking lot, let alone our property line,” he contends.

Demands could be prohibitive, limiting size at odds with regs

Still, Sutton says he is concerned about the apparent scope of the draft regulation. “I think the gravity of the request is surprising in that some of the proposed infrastructure requirements are likely prohibitive for many cannabis firms, and the production quantity restrictions are severely impactful for large greenhouses that could be global exporters in the coming years,” he says.

The agenda of the Climate Change Action Committee, a committee of the MVRD Board, offers information about the proposed recommendation, noting that key features of the proposed regulation include the following:

• enclosure of all cannabis-processing activities and cannabis waste-management activities, including composting;
• use of rapidly closing doors or a double-door system that provides a barrier to the escape of air contaminants from inside;
• collection and routing of air through activated carbon filters for VOC emission control on all structures used for cultivation, processing or waste; and
• restriction of emissions to be discharged no closer than 200 metres to land zoned for residential use, hospitals, schools, daycares, playgrounds and senior care facilities.

Also up for consideration is limiting the size of facilities to an operational area of less than 50,000 sq. m or a cannabis production or processing capacity of less than 50,000 kg per year.

“Large greenhouse conversions from other crops will be severely impacted by these proposals,” Sutton cautions. “There are various aspects that would require comprehensive re-engineering of existing systems. The most egregious would be artificially imposing upper production limits which are not in line with the intent of federal or provincial regulations,” he charges.

The smell produced by cannabis production is at the heart of a Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) staff recommendation for the Climate Change Action Committee to green light suggestions to proceed with a public consultation that, within the year, could result in a proposed regulation requiring cannabis producers to undertake significant upgrades and purchase new equipment.

While there are no concrete cost estimates for cannabis producers—the final tally would relate directly to what each company must change or upgrade should the proposal go through—but the administrative costs are known.

The report, A Proposed Emission Regulation for Cannabis Production and Processing Operations in Metro Vancouver, notes Metro Vancouver’s regulatory system includes a system of user fees intended to help recover the costs of developing and administering permits and regulations. The proposed registration fee would be $2,000, while the annual fee for facilities operating under the proposed regulation would comprise a fixed fee portion of $250 and an additional variable air contaminant emissions fee portion calculated using the emission fee per tonne of VOC established in the MVRD Air Quality Management Fees Regulation Bylaw.

Changes demanding action could be tabled soon

The issue is imminent. Consultations could take place as early as this summer and a regulation put forward for consideration by the end of the year. Whatever is recommended will be a balancing act, says Quan. In addition to environmental concerns, the interests of the public—who made more than 300 complaints about cannabis odour last year alone—and the needs of business to operate cost effectively will be weighed. “We want to make the most compatible use of land, [but] there is no silver bullet,” he adds.

Cannabis producers should accept whatever the outcome is as the price of operating in the cannabis sector, suggests Davies, who believes a good neighbour policy is the best way to proceed. “Cannabis operations will need to integrate into their communities. If this means going that extra step to ensure the local community is supportive, then it will be just another cost of doing business. These are high-dollar investment operations. They need local people to work in them and lots of folks need these good-paying jobs they provide,” he says.