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Neighbours say farm reeked of ammonia and dead animals
Neighbours of a Morrinsville mushroom company set to close because of bad smells say they feel sorry for the 160 workers who will lose their jobs, but believe the company has not done enough to stop the odour.
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Zealand Mushrooms this week told staff it was shutting down because it could not afford the cost of containing smells at its composting plant.
Neighbours in the rural area near the plant have complained of a stench like dead animals which they say permeates their homes and sometimes even makes them dry-retch.
Dairy farmers Nigel and Heather Olesen, who live across the road from the plant, said they felt deep sympathy for the workers, but claimed the company had failed to comply with its resource consent for years.
The Olesens belong to the Waikato Environmental Protection Society and said NZ Mushrooms - a subsidiary of the country's largest mushroom producer, Meadow Mushrooms - could have taken simple steps to contain the smell within its boundaries instead of pouring money into an expensive legal battle.
The two sides - the neighbours and the company - have been locked in a lengthy battle at the Environment Court over the smell, which Mrs Olesen said reeked of ammonia and had once made her dry-retch.
"It's just so overpowering, even in the cowshed."
A woman on another nearby farm described it as "mostly dead animals" and said it was "very, very invasive".
She also believed failure by the company to take steps such as storing wastewater in containers rather than ponds, and enclosing the chicken manure used to make the compost, had ultimately cost the workers their jobs.
"I don't think they needed to lose their jobs. I think if NZ Mushrooms had done it right and spent their money wisely, they would continue."
But Meadow Mushrooms chief executive Roger Young said the company had already spent more than $2 million upgrading the plant and it was not prudent to spend more money when there was no guarantee of obtaining resource consent in the face of ongoing complaints.
He rejected the Olesens' claim that the company flouted its consent conditions, saying if that happened, it was prosecuted.
NZ Mushrooms staff told the Weekend Herald their jobs were being sacrificed for the complaints of a few, and said the ramifications would extend beyond the company.
"It's not just here, it's the community," harvesting co-ordinator Paula Johnson said.
Ms Johnson lives at a house on the same property as the composting plant and though she can smell the odour sometimes, she described it as "a rural smell" which she put up with in the same way as silage.
Grower manager Don Brennan said the smell was much worse before Meadow Mushrooms bought NZ Mushrooms in 1995.
He said the company had made a huge effort to minimise the odour, including installing bunkers and a bio-filter.
It was ironic to him that an operation which used natural products - chicken litter and wheat straw - was being forced to close when it was a viable business in the middle of a worsening recession.
"We're not spilling paint down rivers.
"It's all environmentally sustainable."
Harvester Baldish Singh said she would struggle to find another job where she could earn more than $600 a week and still find time to spend with her four children.
In the wider community, support appeared to lean on the side of the soon-to-be redundant workers.
At David Street School, the odour had made students feel sick a few times a year in the past, but principal Brian Harrop said everyone was happy to put up with it for the sake of the workers and Morrinsville.
Meadow Mushrooms plans to close NZ Mushrooms, which comprises the composting plant and a nearby growing facility, before the end of 2010.
