Helping hand leads to bad smells from Whanganui meatworks

The rendering plant at Imlay is the source of most of the meatworks' smells. Photo / Bevan Conley

Processing product from a South Taranaki rendering plant caused the bad smells from Whanganui's Imlay meatworks earlier this year, Affco chief executive Nigel Stevens says.

The Taranaki By-Products rendering plant at Ōkaiawa, near Hāwera, was badly damaged by a fire on December 26. Offal and other animal parts, known as "rendering raw material", had to be processed elsewhere and Imlay accepted them for its own rendering plant.

"In the absence of Affco providing this short-term assistance, large quantities of meat industry rendering raw material would have been diverted to landfill," Stevens said.

"Given logistic delays, there were initially some issues with the quality of the raw rendering material received from other companies. However, those issues have been fully resolved."

The Imlay meatworks has been plagued by bad smells, especially in 2015 while its rendering plant was being upgraded. It has a phone number people can ring to complain, and a community liaison group that meets at least once a year and gets reports on the situation.

The group met on March 29 and heard from Affco compliance manager Ricky Gowan and Horizons Regional Council consents monitoring team leader Pita Kinaston. Only three people - Graham Pearson, Barbara Allan and Sandra Kyle - attended.

In the three months after the fire at Taranaki By-Products, it received about 45 smell complaints, Pearson said. Horizons Regional Council received 19 complaints during the same period and is now investigating them.

Graham Pearson has been keeping an eye on Affco compliance for years. Photo / Paul Brooks

Rendering plants turn animal remains into meat and bone meal, and tallow. The material sent to Imlay after the Taranaki fire was not pre-treated with acid in the usual way to prevent its decay, Pearson said. That, and breakdowns at Imlay's own rendering plant, caused the bad smells.

By accepting the offal for processing, Affco "shot itself in the foot", Pearson said. It had minimised objectionable odours for the previous two years, with only five and 15 complaints respectively.

The most recent infringement notices were issued on December 14 last year. They were the result of floods delaying the transport of rendering material from Affco's Manawatū meatworks to its Imlay rendering plant, Stevens said.

Affco staff at the community meeting explained how the material from Taranaki had sparked a fresh rash of odour complaints. They "pretty much apologised", Pearson said.

The company has employed a full-time engineer for the rendering plant to prevent further breakdowns, the group was told. It also changed the pre-treatment process for "raw rendering material".

Allan, who moved to Whanganui in 2015 and initially lived in Castlecliff, said she and Pearson were "watchdogs".

They were submitters when Affco applied for consent to discharge odours and other contaminants to air in 2017. A hearing panel gave consent until 2025, with the condition there should be no objectionable odours beyond the plant boundaries.

Barbara Allan watches to see whether Affco complies with its resource consent. Photo / Bevan Conley

"If they don't improve between now and then they will be facing us again, saying we object to them having a permit," Allan said.

"A freezing works isn't appropriate in a suburb unless it's completely contained and has no fugitive odours or other pollution."