Eltham stench leaves bad odour
Deena Coster looks at the continuing fallout from Eltham’s dumped buttermilk fiasco.
Mark Kelly defines his life in two parts. The time before Eltham’s wastewater treatment plant was used as a dumping ground by Fonterra in October 2013 and then what happened next.
Before three million litres of buttermilk was pumped into Eltham’s earthen anaerobic digester, or eader, he says he lived an idyllic lifestyle, growing his own vegetables and making cheese., heading towards the dream of being self-sufficient.
‘‘I was fine, I had no problems at all. It’s been a dramatic change, at a flip of a coin,’’ he says.
Now he lives in Dunedin, hundreds of kilometres away from the small South Taranaki town he used to call home. He moved there with his wife Heather Stewart to try and re-build their life, away from the problems caused when the stench from the untreated, rotting milk flooded his home with toxic fumes and changed his life forever.
Despite the distance between them and the eader, the couple claim to still suffer health problems brought on by the stench. The case may have been resolved legally but they remain bitter that it ever happened at all.
’’They could have stopped all this but they didn’t,’’ Kelly says. ’’For us, it’s not over.’’
It’s been a year since Fonterra was fined $192,000 after being found guilty of its role in causing the stink that plagued Eltham in 2014.
The company had struck a $33,000 deal with the South Taranaki District Council to offload three million litres of buttermilk, along with another 150,000 litres of milk tainted with drilling waste, in the Eltham eader in an effort to deal with an oversupply following a record spring milk production.
However, the untreated milk created a stench which plagued the nearby residents, was blamed for a spate of health ailments and left both a physical and political mess that required hundreds of hours of council time to fix.
Fonterra was found guilty in the Environment Court of discharging odorous compounds into the air and Judge Brian Dwyer’s ruling was scathing of the company’s conduct.
He described the impact as a ‘‘prolonged attack’’ on the quality of the lives of people living near the eader and he was critical of the company’s lack of due diligence to ensure the solution provided to them by the district council would actually work and that its product would be disposed of in a way that would not harm the environment.
The district council also copped a $115,000 fine.
Taking into account court penalties, prosecution costs and the cleanup required to decommission the eader, the bill tops more than $1 million.
But the affected residents have seen none of the money and despite Judge Dwyer’s hope some of the fine might be used on an environmental project in the town, this has not happened.
Taranaki Regional Council’s director of resource management Fred Mclay says while he was aware of what the judge said, the reality was there was no money left over and the regional ratepayer actually had to chip in to cover the legal bill.
He says the total cost to prosecute the district council and Fonterra came to $331,000 and the income from both fines came to $276,300, leaving a deficit of $54,700.
Fonterra has since spent millions on cleaning up its act, building capacity within its own business to ensure it is not caught short again.
While Fonterra has worked hard on prevention, the Eltham residents who had to live with the horrible smell and the disruption to their lives are still struggling.
Alex Ballantyne, a former South Taranaki deputy mayor, believes justice has not been served.
‘‘Nobody has been held accountable. They still have their jobs, getting paid thousands of dollars,’’ he says of the Fonterra and council officials involved.
It’s a thought echoed by fellow resident Maureen Drylie.
‘‘No heads rolled did they? And I expected some to,’’ she says.
Drylie and Ballantyne both spoke of how other residents had accused them of smearing the town’s good name. Calls for them to move on were not infrequent.
‘‘People think we should be putting it behind us now that it’s all over, but it’s the flow-on effect which we are dealing with now,’’ Drylie says.
Another resident, Susan Helmssmith, is still battling bad health, triggered, she says, by the fumes that came from the eader.
She has to have sinus surgery shortly and takes medication daily to keep her symptoms at bay.
Helms-smith has thought about leaving Eltham, but feels it would make little difference to her life.
‘‘I think the damage has been done already,’’ she says.
The experience has been the impetus behind John Moore’s decision to stand for the Eltham
They could have stopped all this but they didn't. For us, it's not over. Mark Kelly
community board and the Taranaki District Health Board in the upcoming October local body elections.
Moore still lives near the water treatment plan and has spent much of the past two years asking questions of officials. But he says he has not got too many satisfactory answers in return. While there had been apologies from Fonterra and the district council for what happened, to Moore the sentiments feel hollow.
‘‘It’s little comfort to us,’’ he says.
As one of a core group who were particularly affected by the actions of Fonterra and the district council he feels sidelined and ignored. Part of his motivation to get involved in local government is to advocate for more transparency and for the community to be involved more in decisions that directly affect them.
‘‘I’m going to be like a fox terrier if I get in,’’ he says.
Commitment to the Eltham community is also something Fonterra’s head of farm source in Taranaki, Scott Walls, strongly supports too.
He says over the past 12 months, Fonterra has funded several initiatives in the town, including a $5000 contribution to the restoration of the Eltham Archers, a donation of food hampers for 200 families and Christmas gifts for 450 kids.
More support is on the way too, Walls says.
‘‘Fonterra has been working with the Eltham Community Board to develop a letter of intent which will see the co-operative commit funding and support for further initiatives aimed at enriching the local community.
‘‘While this document is still in its draft, Fonterra has continued to contribute to projects outlined by the community board to ensure it is helping make a difference to the Eltham community whenever possible,’’ he says.
Community board chairman Gordon Lawson says Fonterra was one of several groups members chatted with about community projects.
He believes with the court case over and the fine paid, the dairy company has no outstanding obligation to the town. And while he was aware of the views Kelly, Moore and others held, it is not indicative of how the wider township feels, he says.
Finding a similar kind of peace is something Kelly thinks has already slipped through his fingers.
A decision made by Kelly and Stewart to pack up and move away was an attempt to start life fresh somewhere else, but it didn’t come easily.
‘‘It was really heartbreaking to leave our home,’’ Stewart says.
The couple are struggling financially and still suffering from ill health, a leftover, they say, of their old life in Eltham.
It’s a legacy she believes will follow the couple wherever they go.
‘‘It’s been a horrendous journey that no-one should ever have to go through.’’