The Whakatāne District Council will conduct an open tender process to seek a solution to persistent odour emission problems at its Te Tahi Street refuse transfer station in Whakatāne.

Since the transfer station opened in January 2010, offensive odours caused largely by rotting food waste in domestic refuse have caused problems for neighbours, particularly in hot summer conditions. After a number of confirmed odour complaints, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council issued an abatement notice in March 2010. Actions taken since then, including the installation of high-speed doors and an odour-suppressing misting system, have improved the situation, but problems have continued to occur, culminating in the issuing of an Infringement Notice by the Regional Council in July.

Reporting to the Whakatāne District Council Projects and Services Committee on Wednesday, General Manager Infrastructure Tomasz Krawczyk said deodorising systems had also been trialled, and although these offered some benefits, occasional odour complaints were still received.

“Odour control works undertaken over the past three years have cost the Council more than $120,000 and added $50,000 a year in operating and maintenance costs, without resolving the underlying problem,” he said. “The Regional Council has been understanding of the situation, but the likelihood that there will be further breaches of the Transfer Station’s resource consent conditions means Council can expect further infringement notices to be issued. All of the relatively simple, short-term measures available to us have proven to be insufficient and we must therefore find an effective, long-term solution.”

One possible option involves the installation of an external ventilation system, which would result in all of the air entering the building being extracted through a fan into a scrubbing tower where it would be treated with a deodoriser before being jetted at high speed from an exhaust stack.

Mr Krawczyk said such a system had a good chance of success, but a competitive tender process was required to evaluate its cost and effectiveness against other potential solutions.

The committee adopted a recommendation that a tender describing the problem in detail and requesting engineering solutions should be issued and the responses and a recommended solution reported back to Council. That report is expected to be available before the end of the year.