Hamish Clark: Good riddance to the Christchurch stink - 'the pong is on the move'

The dig out of the wastewater treatment plant finally under way. Photo / Supplied

OPINION

It was the news all of Christchurch was desperate to hear and see.

The clean-up was under way at the Bromley Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The pong is on the move!

But then it stopped.

A mechanical breakdown halted the clean-up on day three.

Was the poo breakdown too much for the massive machinery?

Is this a bad omen as part of the clean-up?.

Let's hope not!

For seven months the burnt-out unpleasant remnants of the treatment plant at Bromley had sat idle.

The stink cloud grew heavier, more putrid, washing over the city like dirty laundry, depending on which way the wind blew.

The fire, the chemicals, the waste lay untouched, where was the action?

Finally, and only after nearby residents kicked up a stink of their own did those at Council HQ take notice.

And rightly so.

But it feels like a slow process.

Contractors took three weeks to get the machinery in place.

The first test run removing the waste only got under way last Friday

And only then the great excavation began.

The first truckload, chipped and packed into the transport containers, was sent merrily off to North Canterbury and high up in the Kate Valley landfill site on Tuesday before things came to a shuddering halt.

A mechanical failure of the generator and compactor shut down operations.

Groan!

The good news was it was back up and running on Wednesday - the muck rake back on track.

The even better news was the amount of waste that had been removed in less than three days, 30-35 tonnes, 1000 cubic metres.

A total of 26,000 cubic metres has to be dug out, shipped out, and taken out of the city limits - the same volume as 10 Olympic size swimming pools

At this rate, breakdowns aside, and working seven days a week, 10 hours per day the city council is confident to have the job done in four months - by early September.

While that seems like a lifetime away, it's not.

By spring the air should be clean again - the pong gone.

Not before time.