Soil scientists are to be called in to have a close look at how land at Carrington, west of Carterton has been affected by decades of continual spraying of pig effluent.
The groundwater table and nearby waterways including the Mangatarere Stream and the Taratahi water race will also be examined.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council, tasked with the role of re-granting two resource consents to Reid's Piggery, has officially put on hold the application while extra information is obtained.
A letter from the council to submitters, who predominantly objected to any further excrement spraying of the land, said an independent report into soil composition, nutrient loading and best effluent practice for the farm was needed.
"As a consequence, I have placed, this application on hold under Section 92 of the Resource Management Act until we receive this report," said resource advisor, Dierdre Ross.
She said expressions of interest are actively being sought from qualified people and it was hoped the report would be completed sometime in May or June.
She said council was also seeking clarification from the piggery management on a number of issues. Once all this information has been compiled, a hearing date would be set where submitters can have their say.
Ms Ross said seeking an expert report was quite normal, especially if the council did not feel it had enough information.
She said the piggery operation created a huge loading on to farmland compared with regular dairy operations and it was a way of making "a full rounded decision".
One of the 29 submitters and long-time opponent of the spraying operations, Graham Ross, described it as "an outbreak in common sense."
"This is good news for a large majority of the submitters who hold deep concerns about the volumes of dairy and pig effluent being dumped onto the surrounding land, and the awful smells that go with it," he said.
He felt the piggery's application indicated that as the water locally was polluted anyway, any more pollutants being added by the piggery were irrelevant.
"Any people living downstream of the piggery, who rely on well or river water for their household supplies, should consider having the water tested for its potability," Mr Ross said.
The piggery farm, owned by Noel and Elaine Reid, has issued two applications for renewed resource consent, one to continue 24 hour spraying over 4ha on a rotational basis covering 529ha altogether, and another to discharge piggery smell to the air.
It also wants to increase the number of pigs from the present 10,500 to 16,000.
Animal rights organisations have also set the piggery in their sights objecting to pigs being held in stalls.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
'I've lost everything': Drag queen reading group cancels NZ tour after ongoing protests
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki described the cancellation as a 'victory'.