A member of the Wanganui wastewater working party, which guided the development of the city's wastewater treatment regime, says an emergency discharge from the treatment ponds is the quickest and best cure for the city's odour woes.
Ross Mitchell-Anyon, a former district councillor, was a member of the working party which in 1990 brought together diverse groups to consider best options for treating both the city's residential and industrial waste.
"For the mayor and councillors to say the odour isn't a health risk is ridiculous. Anything that makes you feel sick is a health risk and has to be considered as such," Mr Mitchell-Anyon told the Chronicle.
He said the stench was a serious matter but believed a solution lay in the council seeking permission for an emergency discharge from the treatment ponds. This would clear out the built-up sludge in the ponds and let the system get back to normal.
He said he was certain the consents under which the ponds currently operated allowed for such emergency discharges through the South Beach marine outfall.