Residents who live near a smelly compost plant in Christchurch are elated the council is finally taking action to fix the problem.
The smell has been a significant issue for the community for at least 10 years, a local councillor says. Photo: Goyojona [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
The Living Earth compost plant in Bromley produces a smell some have described as vomit, dead animals and rotting vegetables all mixed together.
Yesterday Christchurch City Council voted to spend $21.5 million to fully enclose the plant.
The other option which was to move the plant to a rural area would have cost nearly $70m.
Vickie Walker has lived for the past 23 years lives about 2km from the plant.
"If someone vomited next to you, I smell that constantly it's like silage and dead animals mixed together.
"It's not really bad all the time but it's enough to ruin your day when it does smell," she said.
Walker said the smell got worse about three years ago and believed that's when the plant started to accept commercial waste from restaurants.
"The decision is a start, it's a lot of money so they better get it right, my understanding is that the council is going to make sure it's going to work and not have any odour before the work starts.
"We're always going to have a nor-east wind so it was a really bad place to put it in the first instance, I think it needs to be moved because if this doesn't work its a lot of money down the gurgler."
Other nearby residents have previously told the council they sometimes don't sleep at home because the smell is so bad, others said the dust produced by the plant is toxic and makes it hard for them to breathe.
Local councillor Yani Johanson has fought alongside the community for the past eight years to get something done about the stench.
Council staff recommended spending $17.5m to upgrade the compost plant with an extra $4m if the initial work didn't solve the problem but Johanson amended that all the work be done at once.
"Without doubt this has been a significant issue for the community for at least 10 years and it's been increasing, the option to move the plant which personally I think we need to look at long-term we need to consider is just something that couldn't be done in a reasonable timeframe to reduce the offensive odour."
Johanson said there were lessons to be taken from this case so the same mistakes were not repeated.
"The bigger question is how did this plant get consent in the first place, and what were the conditions that were put on it that were so inadequate in dealing with the harm being caused to the community."
The Canterbury Regional Council has an app for the community to report when the compost plant smells.
Last month they received 742 reports of it smelling, compared to 287 in October.
Christchurch City Council will begin contract negotiations with Living Earth who run the plant - so the remediation works can begin as quickly as possible.