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Morrinsville farmers and Environment Waikato are trumpeting a "landmark" court case in which odours coming from a mushroom composting operation can be considered objectionable.
New Zealand Mushrooms has been locked in a bitter battle for many years with local farmers over smells than emanate from a mixture of
bulk chicken manure, hay, lime, and water.
Until now, bad smells have been dealt with as individual events, but a recent Environment Court ruling determined that offensive odours can be considered objectionable on a cumulative basis.
This has prevented the company from expanding its operation.
One neighbouring couple, Tony and Janet Gray, said they had spent more than $200,000 taking the issue to the Environment Court and were in the process of selling one hectare of their land to help fund the "war".
"We could flee or fight," Mrs Gray said, "but we're choosing to fight."
New Zealand Mushrooms said it was appealing against the decision to the High Court and would make no comment.
General manager Alan Gordon said little would be gained by having a public debate about the issue at this stage.
The company is a subsidiary of Meadow Mushrooms, a Christchurch-based firm partly owned by former National Party Cabinet minister Philip Burdon.
Environment Waikato (EW) programme manager David Stagg said the "cumulative" point made by the court was important.
"This is a very significant decision because it is the first time evidence of chronic odour effects have been explicitly dealt with."
According to Environment Court evidence, the company has spent more than $2 million since 1995 trying to reduce the environmental effects at its Taukoro Rd plant.
"They've also spent hundreds of thousands trying to tell the court they have not got a problem," said neighbour Ben Cameron, a dairy farmer.
Although improvements were acknowledged, he said the odours remained putrid and there was no warning of when the smell would come.
His wife, four preschool children, and staff should not have to be exposed to such terrible smells "in this day and age".
"It's amazing how it can seep through the wooden joinery and get into your house.
"It's not a rural smell and it has so many different sources. At its most potent, the most obnoxious one is the one where it smells like a dead cow. It's a rotting odour, particularly when it's wet."
Such smells usually triggered alarm bells for people and the only option was to bury the source. But the company had so far refused to contain smells by enclosing its processing operation within walls.
The problem went back more than 20 years, Mr Cameron said, and a nearby golf club had in the past blamed the smell on him.
The Grays said two schools were also affected by the odours at times.
In 2005 EW and Matamata-Piako District Council granted New Zealand Mushrooms resource consent to expand its plant.
The company wants to triple the size of its operation, but the Grays and a band of farmers (the Waikato Environmental Protection Society) appealed against the decision.
At the hearing EW changed its stance and sought additional controls on the odour because of persisting effects.
NZ Mushrooms also faces more than 20 charges for unlawful discharges of objectionable odour, now before the Environment Court, and is charged with illegally discharging contaminated wastewater.
