But since the city council implemented an adaptive management plan to reduce the odour in June, an Environment Canterbury report shows the smell has got worse.
In May, before the plan went ahead, 225 reports of compost odours were submitted by the community, which decreased in June to 174. But in July, there were 204 reports.
The plan is two months into a three-month trial to test and carry out necessary changes to alleviate the issues, which will identify if the changes were successful.
Said Carol Anderson, who has lived on Bromley’s Seascape Gardens for 23 years: "It’s been pretty bad, the stench just kills me.
"Any smell blows directly across where we live and in other areas.
"It won’t make it easy to sell the house. I’m just feeling resigned."
She said the smell is not as bad this month as it has been in previous months, but "having said that, it’s still been pretty horrendous".
While the trials were under way, the plan outlined that the odour may be stronger or weaker on different days.
Operational changes at refuse and recycling facility, EcoDrop, managed by EcoCentral, showed a 40 per cent decline in average "odour units" detected in July compared to June.
Changes included clearing odorous waste in sealed containers quickly, ensuring all waste was cleared each night, and prioritising odorous waste.
However, an increase in "offensive" reported odours was identified at organics processing plant Living Earth beyond the boundary of the site.
“Living Earth has been using misters for a number of years as a tool to mitigate odour from the plant," the city council’s AMP progress report said.
"Four additional, larger misters have been brought in and are now in use."
The compost "recipe" was also adjusted to replace the odour profile of the previous blend that was causing the offensive smell.
"It will take about 12 weeks for all of the compost from the old blend to completely cycle through the composting process and move off-site."
"With two out of the three months up for significant reduction in odour complaints, the problem is growing which is completely unacceptable to the local community. This highlights clearly that the Resource Management Act is inadequate to deal with these activities.
"There is no way what is occurring here should be allowable in any community in New Zealand."
A screening machine, which processes materials twice to ensure it is fully broken down, will be installed next month at Living Earth to further mitigate the worsening stench.
Said ECan councillor Nicole Marshall: "This three-month compliance period gives CCC time to be good neighbours, while enabling ECan to collect further data from the site so we can fulfil our duties as a regulator.
"It’s important we resolve the issue for Bromley without simply moving it somewhere else."
The trial finishes at the end of August and, if it proves unsuccessful, the city council will consider longer-term options with an outcome by the end of November this year.
