Residents breathe sigh of relief over progress on fixing Bromley plant stench

Some Christchurch residents are feeling more buoyant over efforts to relieve the stench coming from the fire-damaged wastewater treatment plant at Bromley.

The stink has plagued the city's eastern suburbs since a fire destroyed key infrastructure at the Bromley Wastewater Plant in November 2021.

Residents in the worst-hit areas have regularly lamented the physical and mental toll the odour has caused.

The Christchurch City Council has been in the firing line over the past five years with its response to the crisis put under intense scrutiny from affected community members.

Work on a $7.7 million plan to add 16 more aerators to the sewage ponds to tackle the smell is underway.

It follows thousands of odour complaints over the summer - including from Wigram 10 kilometres away - and an abatement notice from the Canterbury Regional Council.

Mayor Phil Mauger then floated the idea of pumping around a third of the city's sewage into the ocean in a bid to ease the stench.

Council staff provided an update to a small community turnout in Wainoni on Wednesday night.

Between six to eight of the units commissioned are expected to be up and running this week.

The full installation of aerators is due to be completed by late August.

Two trickling filters destroyed by the 2021 fire are also being replaced with a $140 million activated sludge reactor system.

Meeting 'informative' - critic

Woolston resident and community advocate Rebecca Robin has previously been critical of the council's response.

Following the meeting, she told RNZ she was pleased progress was being made.

"It was really informative and it's good to see the aerators are happening," she said.

"It's nice to see that there are more community meetings. Because we wanted to make sure there's more education out there.

"I'm happy with the fact more comms are happening for sure."

Although there were still "bad days", the level of stench had improved recently, Robin said.

A council graph presented at the meeting showed a spike in hourly hydrogen sulphide levels over the past week in an area near the plant.

Waitai Coastal-Burwood-Linwood Community Board chairperson Paul McMahon said he was impressed with how comprehensive the update was from staff.

"It is a massive, difficult and long capital project that's really complicated," he said.

"Hopefully it will be done on time, if not before time."

Linwood ward councillor Yani Johanson also commended the update from staff.

He suggested council could do more to get more of the community along to meetings given the low turnout on Wednesday.

The overall upgrades are due to be completed in 2028.

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