KEY POINTS:
Decades of acrid burning odours coming out of Fletcher Building's Penrose wood plant are about to come to an end to the relief of residents in the area.
Fletcher chief executive Jonathan Ling said on Friday the hardboard and softboard plant on O'Rorke Rd would be shut after an investigation found an upgrade to control the smell would cost between $2 million and $4 million.
The closure brings to an end many years of complaints from residents in the area running from Penrose to One Tree Hill.
Auckland Regional Council's air pollution team discussed taking legal action after advice that there were sufficient grounds for prosecution.
ARC experts said the plant had major ongoing issues.
A One Tree Hill resident has disliked the smell for the 30 years she has lived in the area.
"It used to be so bad, you couldn't have your windows open," she said, although it had been less offensive lately.
Other residents said the smell was so bad it had forced them to to sell houses and move.
In 2001, Fletcher said it would control the odour by installing a bio-filter but the ARC had doubts about the efficiency of the equipment.
Mr Ling said smell was not the only issue. The Laminex plant had been losing money for the past three to four years so any upgrade was out of the question. He cited discussions with the ARC about emission controls and said investigations of how to fix problems and reduce the smell had been central to the plant's future.
The high exchange rate and the plant's non-profitability were other reasons for the decision to close the production facility.
"The odour comes when they heat up the processed wood fibre. It's a burning smell," Mr Ling said.
The plant operated five days a week on 24-hour shifts and staff had tried to control the smells by making only hard boards on day shifts.
"You get an odour when you're making hardboard because of the higher temperatures, so we've tried not to make that board on the night shift. We've tried to manage the odour situation but have had no complaints from residents.
"We've been in discussions with the ARC on the odour for some time. We had agreed a plan of approach as to how we'd tackle the issues and that has led us to understand how much it would cost us to fix it."
The plant, known by long-time locals as the NZ Forest Products plant, had been operating for many decades and had employed 65 people.
Ling said the company would try to place as many people as possible within Fletcher's other business units but he expected some people would consider redundancy.
About 60 per cent of the plant's product was exported to Australia, North America and Asia where it was used in furniture and building. The softboard had been used for display noticeboards. The hardboard was used among other furniture in cabinets.
But Mr Ling said demand for the materials had dropped considerably and the hardboard had been largely replaced by other products.
BIG STINK
* Air pollution problems at a Penrose plant partly forced closure.
* 50 complaints since 1999 prompted Auckland Regional Council action.
* ARC has issued seven infringement notices in the past eight years.
* Three abatement notices were issued during that time too.
* ARC demanded Fletcher improve emission controls at the plant.
* Prosecution was an option if offensive odours did not stop.
MEMORIES OF 'ASHY' SMELL GO BACK DECADES
Ana Ofa knows all too well the smells from Fletcher Building's Penrose factory - she's lived a couple of streets away all her life.
"It smells like an incinerator, ashy," says the 27-year-old, whose memories of the odour go back to when she was aged 3.
It hasn't been as strong during the past few years and her most recent memory of a truly pungent reek was the night Princess Diana died a decade ago.
Neighbours say the aroma is hard to describe, their accounts ranging from "dry and woody" to a chemical stench.
"It used to annoy me," says Rosemary Lyon. "It was irritating on my nostrils."
For Bill Berwan, news that the factory is shutting is welcome relief.
"I'm happy," says the Rockfield Rd resident of 25 years. Mr Berwan's four children cried out about the "gas" smell when they were younger but the family would not move house.
While others try not to open windows or dry washing on the line when the smell is at its worst, Ms Ofa "got over it" years ago. She said the factory had an upside for the suburb, providing jobs for many residents.
Her grandfather worked there, as did several other family members.
But the last, her cousin Casa Hala, was made redundant this year after more than a decade with the company.
