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A Tauranga resident says “putrid” discharges from a pet food manufacturing factory made her feel “like being a prisoner” in her own home.
More than 1100 complaints were made over seven years about Alpine Export NZ Limited (Alpine).
On Tuesday, Alpine appeared in the Environment Court in Tauranga for a sentencing hearing after the company had, on an earlier date, pleaded guilty to four charges each of discharging an odorous contaminant into the air and contravening an abatement notice.
The judge reserved his decision.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council prosecution came after public complaints and extensive communications with Alpine, including five infringement notices, three warning letters and an abatement notice issued between August 2019 and August 2020.
The eight admitted charges related to four separate discharges between October 10, 2021, and June 9, 2022, and involved five complainants.
Alpine manufactures 10 to 11 tonnes of pet food from raw meat products daily at its Koromiko St site in the Judea Industrial Estate. The nearest residential properties are 100 to 300 metres to the east in the Avenues.
There is no resource consent authorising the discharge of these contaminants from the site into the air beyond the factory’s boundaries. However, the defendant lodged a resource consent application in 2019.
One complainant, who was granted name suppression, told Judge David Kirkpatrick and the court the odours were so overpowering at times she was forced indoors and had to close all her windows and doors to avoid the smell.
“I have made numerous complaints to the regional council. These odours are like a putrid, acrid roasting meat, smell.
“I love to entertain and spend a lot of time in my garden but I feel so embarrassed about these odours that I don’t want to invite people over for barbecues and other social occasions ... It makes me feel like being a prisoner in my own home.”
Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s lawyer Adam Hopkinson said the other complainants described the odours as being like “dirty old mutton fat”, “rotting, stinking, dead meat”, and a “degrading carcass”.
The Alpine Export NZ Limited pet food manufacturing site in the Judea Industrial Estate. Photo / Supplied
The effects of the odour included nausea, headaches, dry-retching, lost appetite and difficulty breathing, Hopkinson said.
Hopkinson argued the appropriate starting point was a fine of $120,000 before a 25 per cent discount for guilty pleas and no more than five per cent for personal mitigating factors, expressed remorse and participating in restorative justice meetings.
Hopkinson said the fine reflected the defendant’s “high level of culpability” and the maximum penalty for each charge was a $600,000 fine.
Hopkinson submitted Alpine’s offending was “more serious” than discharges from industrial sites where victims were other nearby industrial-related businesses as local residents expected a “higher level of air quality” to be maintained.
He also said there was “no evidence” Alpine had scaled back production while it tried to sort out the problem and, in fact, its pet food production increased in 2019 without measures to mitigate the risk of more odour.
Alpine’s lawyer Bronwyn Carruthers KC argued the starting point for the fine was too high andshould be $80,000.
Carruthers said Alpine “absolutely acknowledged” the problems and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity but rejected any suggestion that the offending was at the high end of the scale.
She said there was clear evidence that the company had taken a number of steps to try and prevent further discharges after increasing production, including using ozone to treat and reduce the odour before discharge.
“Alpine neither disregarded nor ignored the abatement notice.
“In fact, it has worked tirelessly and spent a considerable amount of money, to try and address this problem and it continues to do so to fulfil its obligations.”
Carruthers said Alpine had paid for the restorative justice meeting with the complainants so the managing director Mark Russell could explain the background to these discharges, measures taken to try to resolve the issues and what it intended to do to try and make amends.
At the meeting Russell had made a “genuine and sincere apology” and Alpine deserved significant credit for doing so, Carruthers said.
