Long-suffering Bromley residents face a "very stinky summer" as the process to find a short-term fix to the smell from the Organics Processing Plant begins.
Christchurch city councillors heard submissions on five short-term options for managing organics at the contentious plant today.
The council agreed in principle to relocate the compost plant in June this year, followed a long history of complaints from some residents living in nearby areas who said odours from the plant were negatively affecting their health and quality of life.
They are:
• Alternative processing. Send all mixed kerbside organics to an alternative, or several alternative, composting plants and worm farms.
• Kate Valley Landfill. Send all mixed kerbside organics to Kate Valley Landfill.
• Continue at the Organics Processing Plant. Stay at the current location with an additional outdoor screen.
• Reduce the amount of material going to the Organics Processing Plant. Minimising the need for outdoor storage of material.
• Partial processing of material at the Organics Processing Plant. First stage of composting done indoors at the plant with second-stage processing done off-site.
Bromley resident Geoffrey King said almost all the options were status quo.
"The only option to fix the problem is option two. Send it to Kate Valley, bury it, then extract the methane, convert it to electricity, feed it into the grid".
Half of respondents supported partial processing of material at the Bromley plant, with second-stage processing done off-site.
And 87% of people wanted to see the plant continue operating to some degree.
Many submitters were concerned about the cost and environmental impact of transporting all the organic material to the Kate Valley Landfill.
Beckenham resident Babs Theinert-Brown told councillors that the annual shipping of 60,000 tonnes of green waste 800km around the country and putting it in the Kate Valley Landfill was wrong on so many levels.
"While I was pondering over your survey question, where should we send green bin organics? I realised that it was asking the wrong question.
"Rather, I'd like to go back a step and rephrase it. What can we do to reduce the amount of green waste that needs to be collected in the first place?".
City councillors get their turn next month to debate and vote on final short-term recommendations for the processing plant.
Meanwhile last month, the city council apologised to residents after a fire two years ago destroyed the trickling filters at the city's wastewater treatment plant near the Organics Processing Plant.
The apology stemmed from an independent report, commissioned by council chief executive Dawn Baxendale, which criticised the council’s response to the fire and the aftermath, saying it was “too slow to recognise” the stench was a significant community issue.
- By Geoff Sloan
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
- By Geoff Sloan
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
