Living Earth Composting Facility in Christchurch New Zealand operated by Christchurch City Council and owned by Beijing Capital.
Beijing Capital is an investment arm of the Communist Chinese Government Bei Jing China.
This is a residents description of living with this 'silent killers' pollution and the councils attitude to residents.
The Christchurch City Councils Composting plant at 4 Metro Place, Bromley.
The Christchurch City Councils Composting plant at 4 Metro Place, Bromley.
In 2002 the then Government of New Zealand led by Helen Clark made a commitment to reduce the waste stream by launching NZ waste strategy to minimise & manage waste.
In 2009 the Christchurch City Council, under the leadership of a Mark Christison from the Waste & Water department, led the charge to implement this strategy.
The Christchurch City Council(CCC) introduced a three bin waste system to cover general rubbish,recyclable waste and green waste.
The most complicated aspect was related to the green waste collection of food /garden waste & then taken to the composting plant situated at 4 Metro Place in an industrial zone but only 300 metres from residential zones.
If you Google 'Bio Waste Down Under' you can read the set up of the composting plant located just off Dyres Road (a major arterial route) in the suburb of Bromley. The system was praised & was trumpeted far & wide as the best thing since sliced bread.
The CCC commissioned Living Earth to construct & set up the composting operation (because they didn't have a clue what to do) & it was commissioned in March 1999. It was claimed at the time as being the largest & most sophisticated composting operation in Australasia. Yeah right!
It is unfortunate that the powers that be who claim to be experts in such operations had not done their homework, in fact know very little as it has transpired, about the end results of the composting process.
For 6 years at time of writing, the residents in the wind shadow of this operation, which has been foisted upon them without consultation and honest advice, have had nothing but problems since this silent killer started making compost. I say silent killer because no matter which way the wind is blowing or not in some cases, someone somewhere is getting hit with black dust and offensive odours, which contain pathogens & bioaerosols. It does not matter which time of the day or night, rain, hail or shine this plant gives off offensive odour & black dust which is affecting resident's health, lifestyles & living standards.
The Helen Clark government at the time in 2002 had every good intention to be a responsible government, but no one foresaw the problems and risk to human life these composting operations would generate.
The CCC hold the consents to operate the composting plant which are issued by Environment Canterbury (ECAN).
Living Earth is the selected operator who we must presume won the contract by fair means to make the compost.
ECAN(regional council) gets more complaints per month through their pollution hotline on this killer of a plant than the rest of the complaints on other operations put together. Complaints are made from residents and businesses in the area of the wind shadow of this lethal operation on a daily basis but with no satisfaction of a fix.
The consent also states that every 3 months the residents, CCC, ECAN, Living Earth and other affected organisations have a liaison meeting which is held at the Living Earth complex at 4 Metro Place. Usually the 3rd Tuesday of February, May, August & November.
Initially this liaison meeting was chaired & minuted by the Living Earth management even though it was not their place to do so. It was not until November 2013 that an independent paid chairman was appointed along with a professional minute taker. The reason for the changes being that Living Earth management were deleting content that affected their operations and or complaints from the official minutes. (I wonder why they would do that!). These liaison meetings actually are a waste of time & achieve nothing & no one is held responsible, no one has any authority to ensure things happen or are attended to, so as to look important & they just sit there & do not contribute positively or at all. They are professional meeting people who like to add such to their resumes.
The main problem is the odour from the windrows of composted materials that is exposed to natures elements and they need to be turned regularly if not daily. If the windrows were covered, and or taken off site away from residential properties then there would be no issue. ECAN are failing miserably in their endeavours & responsibilities to log & prosecute the daily breaches of consents by the operating company, Living Earth, on behalf of CCC.
The offensive odour is generated by the addition of food waste such as meat, fish, dairy and processed foods put into the green bins by the residents. Why this is not realised by the so called experts at the Waste Water of the CCC and the Unliving Earth Composting Company, God only knows. They proclaimed to be the experts in such matters, yet have unleashed this monster of a silent killer on many people.
This plant affects the suburbs of Bromley, Brookhaven, Mt Pleasant, Ferrymead, Woolston, Linwood, New Brighton, & South Brighton. There would be in excess of 3000 homes involved not to mention the hundreds of businesses & factories. 10,000 plus people are affected by this killer of a monster composting operation that is putting pathogens & bioaerosols into the environment for us all to be affected.
The dust is so great that in 2012 one resident had his roof repainted under a guarantee from the manufacturing company. The tradesmen repainted the roof & before it could dry it was covered in composting dust particles. It was cheaper for the manufacturer to replace the roof than to rub it down to & repaint & risk the same happening a second time.
We breathe this dust into our lungs on a daily basis. Our homes are covered in black dust & you only have to look at the guttering to understand the extent.
The odour is the greatest problem. It invades our homes, is in our clothes, our hair, we cannot enjoy our properties, like the garden or to have BBQ's or to even invite friends over, such is the embarrassment & unpleasantness from the killer composting plant.
Businesses suffer, for example at the Caltex fuel station on Dyres Road I have seen people pull up get out of their car, sniff the air, screw up their faces, then get back into their car & drive off without refuelling. It was so bad one day, unbeknown, I went round to fill a gas bottle & was told upon my return home to strip my clothes off in the garage & don't bring the smell into the house. If we have our washing on the line all day we generally have to bring it in & rewash it.
In the middle of the night I have been woken up gasping for breath the intensity of the offensive smell was so great.
The most frustrating aspect of this whole dilemma is the lack of cooperation, respect & help to stop this killer of a composting operation sending dust & odour into our homes & bodies.
It is fixable. We have told the powers that be what will fix it but it seems to be water off a ducks back.We have spoken personally with the CEO of CCC but have yet to get a response and or a plan of what they intend to do to curtail the offensive smell & dust problems.
Our Mayor is in denial, she has been asked numerous times if we can meet her but she refuses.
The chairman of CCC Infrastructure & Environment has also emphatically said NO to a meeting with us, yet has given other residents with traffic light problems an airing.
Councillors at CCC generally do to seem to want to help our predicament that was foisted upon our living conditions affecting our health & lifestyles.
The head of CCC Waste Water has told me to 'suck it up', the odour is pleasant & the operation is for the betterment of the whole city.
At a recent liaison meeting after asking CCC what plan they had to eliminate the offensive odour we were responded with, screamed at, rudely spoken to, or treated with silence, not something that you would expect from handsomely paid executives of a council organisation that has the responsibilities to spend money (rates) wisely, or fix problems so that our lives are not in danger.
Someone must be held responsible for the situation that residents in the wind shadow of these silent killer plants find themselves in. I certainly would not like to be in their shoes when crunch day comes!
After reading this well written and informative article about the silent killer plant, Living Earth, in Christchurch it was as though it had been written about us in Tuakau under the wind shadow of Envirofert Composting plant.
The only slight difference is our local councillors have done NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING to help us. Our Mayor has done NOTHING also.
The most complicated aspect was related to the green waste collection of food /garden waste & then taken to the composting plant situated at 4 Metro Place in an industrial zone but only 300 metres from residential zones.
If you Google 'Bio Waste Down Under' you can read the set up of the composting plant located just off Dyres Road (a major arterial route) in the suburb of Bromley. The system was praised & was trumpeted far & wide as the best thing since sliced bread.
The CCC commissioned Living Earth to construct & set up the composting operation (because they didn't have a clue what to do) & it was commissioned in March 1999. It was claimed at the time as being the largest & most sophisticated composting operation in Australasia. Yeah right!
It is unfortunate that the powers that be who claim to be experts in such operations had not done their homework, in fact know very little as it has transpired, about the end results of the composting process.
For 6 years at time of writing, the residents in the wind shadow of this operation, which has been foisted upon them without consultation and honest advice, have had nothing but problems since this silent killer started making compost. I say silent killer because no matter which way the wind is blowing or not in some cases, someone somewhere is getting hit with black dust and offensive odours, which contain pathogens & bioaerosols. It does not matter which time of the day or night, rain, hail or shine this plant gives off offensive odour & black dust which is affecting resident's health, lifestyles & living standards.
The Helen Clark government at the time in 2002 had every good intention to be a responsible government, but no one foresaw the problems and risk to human life these composting operations would generate.
The CCC hold the consents to operate the composting plant which are issued by Environment Canterbury (ECAN).
Living Earth is the selected operator who we must presume won the contract by fair means to make the compost.
ECAN(regional council) gets more complaints per month through their pollution hotline on this killer of a plant than the rest of the complaints on other operations put together. Complaints are made from residents and businesses in the area of the wind shadow of this lethal operation on a daily basis but with no satisfaction of a fix.
The consent also states that every 3 months the residents, CCC, ECAN, Living Earth and other affected organisations have a liaison meeting which is held at the Living Earth complex at 4 Metro Place. Usually the 3rd Tuesday of February, May, August & November.
Initially this liaison meeting was chaired & minuted by the Living Earth management even though it was not their place to do so. It was not until November 2013 that an independent paid chairman was appointed along with a professional minute taker. The reason for the changes being that Living Earth management were deleting content that affected their operations and or complaints from the official minutes. (I wonder why they would do that!). These liaison meetings actually are a waste of time & achieve nothing & no one is held responsible, no one has any authority to ensure things happen or are attended to, so as to look important & they just sit there & do not contribute positively or at all. They are professional meeting people who like to add such to their resumes.
The main problem is the odour from the windrows of composted materials that is exposed to natures elements and they need to be turned regularly if not daily. If the windrows were covered, and or taken off site away from residential properties then there would be no issue. ECAN are failing miserably in their endeavours & responsibilities to log & prosecute the daily breaches of consents by the operating company, Living Earth, on behalf of CCC.
The offensive odour is generated by the addition of food waste such as meat, fish, dairy and processed foods put into the green bins by the residents. Why this is not realised by the so called experts at the Waste Water of the CCC and the Unliving Earth Composting Company, God only knows. They proclaimed to be the experts in such matters, yet have unleashed this monster of a silent killer on many people.
This plant affects the suburbs of Bromley, Brookhaven, Mt Pleasant, Ferrymead, Woolston, Linwood, New Brighton, & South Brighton. There would be in excess of 3000 homes involved not to mention the hundreds of businesses & factories. 10,000 plus people are affected by this killer of a monster composting operation that is putting pathogens & bioaerosols into the environment for us all to be affected.
The dust is so great that in 2012 one resident had his roof repainted under a guarantee from the manufacturing company. The tradesmen repainted the roof & before it could dry it was covered in composting dust particles. It was cheaper for the manufacturer to replace the roof than to rub it down to & repaint & risk the same happening a second time.
We breathe this dust into our lungs on a daily basis. Our homes are covered in black dust & you only have to look at the guttering to understand the extent.
The odour is the greatest problem. It invades our homes, is in our clothes, our hair, we cannot enjoy our properties, like the garden or to have BBQ's or to even invite friends over, such is the embarrassment & unpleasantness from the killer composting plant.
Businesses suffer, for example at the Caltex fuel station on Dyres Road I have seen people pull up get out of their car, sniff the air, screw up their faces, then get back into their car & drive off without refuelling. It was so bad one day, unbeknown, I went round to fill a gas bottle & was told upon my return home to strip my clothes off in the garage & don't bring the smell into the house. If we have our washing on the line all day we generally have to bring it in & rewash it.
In the middle of the night I have been woken up gasping for breath the intensity of the offensive smell was so great.
The most frustrating aspect of this whole dilemma is the lack of cooperation, respect & help to stop this killer of a composting operation sending dust & odour into our homes & bodies.
It is fixable. We have told the powers that be what will fix it but it seems to be water off a ducks back.We have spoken personally with the CEO of CCC but have yet to get a response and or a plan of what they intend to do to curtail the offensive smell & dust problems.
Our Mayor is in denial, she has been asked numerous times if we can meet her but she refuses.
The chairman of CCC Infrastructure & Environment has also emphatically said NO to a meeting with us, yet has given other residents with traffic light problems an airing.
Councillors at CCC generally do to seem to want to help our predicament that was foisted upon our living conditions affecting our health & lifestyles.
The head of CCC Waste Water has told me to 'suck it up', the odour is pleasant & the operation is for the betterment of the whole city.
At a recent liaison meeting after asking CCC what plan they had to eliminate the offensive odour we were responded with, screamed at, rudely spoken to, or treated with silence, not something that you would expect from handsomely paid executives of a council organisation that has the responsibilities to spend money (rates) wisely, or fix problems so that our lives are not in danger.
Someone must be held responsible for the situation that residents in the wind shadow of these silent killer plants find themselves in. I certainly would not like to be in their shoes when crunch day comes!
After reading this well written and informative article about the silent killer plant, Living Earth, in Christchurch it was as though it had been written about us in Tuakau under the wind shadow of Envirofert Composting plant.
The only slight difference is our local councillors have done NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING to help us. Our Mayor has done NOTHING also.
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