Council confirms community support package

Residents living close to the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant will be able to get some financial help up to $200 from the start of next week.

Christchurch City Council has today approved a community support package to assist those living nearest to the plant, who have been bearing the brunt of the stench since the fire at the facility in November last year.

Organics processing plant to remain operating

The organics processing plant will continue to operate for now, as we work through our procurement process. 

At today’s Finance and Performance Committee meeting, Councillors decided that the organics plant will continue to operate in the interim.

The decision followed consideration of a report acknowledging the concerns many in the Bromley community have about the plant and the long history of odour. It also outlined significant implications, risks and costs that an immediate closure would have.

Councillors requested staff investigate removing the on-site tailings and cover more of the operation. Tailings are larger material, like broken down sticks and branches, which are leftover after the screening process. They're added to material from the kerbside organic collection and are necessary to create porosity during the enclosed tunnel composting phase. Councillors also requested that Council continues to support community composting initiatives.

If you were watching the meeting you may have heard discussion about the abatement notice. To keep you updated we received a letter from Environment Canterbury on Monday 23 May informing us of their staff opinion that ongoing low levels of odour breach the abatement notice. Our independent odour expert disagrees with Environment Canterbury. We are engaging with Environment Canterbury in relation to this matter and we will keep you updated on next steps as we know them.

Latest from the Newsline blog

We're providing regular updates on our Newsline blog multiple times a day, including images of the on-site progress, daily wind forecasts, air quality testing results, answers to questions we receive and other up-to-date information as it comes to hand.

The week ahead...

Next Monday, (May 30th) the Wastewater Treatment Plant Fire Community Support Package will be open for the 3,380 residents within the area bordered by Buckleys Rd, Pages Rd, SH74 and Linwood Ave.

Residents on both sides of these roads are eligible for the $200 support payment and can expect to have a booklet to arrive in their letterboxes over the weekend.

We'll provide more details and answer some questions around the support package on Monday.

We'll also publish the latest air quality findings on our website under the "what we're currently doing" section. 

Further updates on how the on-site work is progressing will be published on the Newsline blog, before the contractors begin removing the trickling filter material after Queen's Birthday Weekend.

Stay updated

We want everyone to be able to stay updated on our response and recovery from the treatment plant fire, and have created ccc.govt.nz/wastewaterfire so that we can regularly share new information with you.

We've also created a blog on Newsline where we post regular updates.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive this e-newsletter they can subscribe online. 

If you have any questions, or would like further information on the project, please call us on 03 941 8999 or 0800 800 169 or email wastewater@ccc.govt.nz  

Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding as we continue to work on minimising the unpleasant smells after the fire. We’ll be in touch again soon.