BAP-271860-59-54-V2:crg

BEFORE THE WAIKATO REGIONAL COUNCIL

IN THE MATTER OF the Resource Management Act 1991

AND

IN THE MATTER OF An application for resource consents by AFFCO NEW ZEALAND LTD to the Waikato Regional

Council for new and replacement consents for the

company’s Horotiu processing site.

STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE OF TONY WILLIAMS MILES

(Company Overview)

Counsel: T Le Bas/B Parham tlebas@tomwake.co.nz/bparham@tomwake.co.nz Fax: (07) 839-4855

WESTPAC HOUSE 430 VICTORIA STREET PO BOX 258, DX GP20031 HAMILTON 3240 NEW ZEALAND PH: 07 839 4771 www.tomwake.co.nz

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INTRODUCTION 1. My name is Tony William Miles. I am the Operations Manager for

AFFCO New Zealand Limited (‘AFFCO’), a position I have held since

March 2004.

2. I completed a Diploma in Meat Technology through Massey University in

1998. I have more than 25 years’ experience in the management of

meat processing facilities, where I have held a mixture of positions

ranging from processing through to my current position as Operations

Manager with AFFCO.

3. I joined AFFCO in March 2004 after spending 17 years working in the

meat industry in various roles from processing departments through to

plant.

4. My specific responsibilities as AFFCO’s Operations Manager include

operational responsibility for a number of AFFCO’s facilities including

Moerewa, Rangiuru, Wairoa, MPB, Imlay, Horotiu, Invercargill and

Malvern. In my role I report directly to the Operations Director and

AFFCO Directors. During my employment in the freezing works industry

I have worked in ten AFFCO and AFFCO subsidiary sites, and at least

six other sites owned by Lowe Walker and Richmond Meats including Te

Aroha, Dargaville, Hawera, Waitotara and Oringi.

5. I have the overall responsibility for securing the replacement suite of

consents from the Waikato Regional Council to authorise the meat

works, rendering plant and a proposed dairy processing plant at

AFFCO’s Horotiu site, about 10km north of Hamilton.

SCOPE OF EVIDENCE 6. My evidence will address the following matters:

(a) AFFCO New Zealand Limited - company overview;

(b) Description of the Horotiu processing plant;

(c) Open Country Dairy Limited's proposed dairy processing plant at

Horotiu;

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(d) Horotiu consent compliance;

(e) Local and regional contributions by AFFCO;

(f) Upgrades and capital investment at the Horotiu processing plant;

(g) Engagement with the Horotiu community;

(h) Engagement with Waikato-Tainui; and

(i) Term of consents.

7. I am authorised to give this evidence on behalf of AFFCO.

AFFCO NZ LIMITED – COMPANY OVERVIEW

8. AFFCO was established in 1904. It is owned by Talley’s Group Limited

(‘Talley’s Group’), an international exporter of a wide range of premium

New Zealand produce. The Talley’s Group is a private company wholly

owned by the Talley family. The Talley’s Group has grown to include

four major food divisions – seafood, vegetables, meat and dairy.

9. AFFCO is one of New Zealand's leading meat companies, processing

and exporting more than 150,000 tonnes of quality chilled and frozen

beef and lamb products every year to more than 75 countries.

10. The company operates ten strategically located processing sites across

the North Island of New Zealand and two processing facilities in the

South Island, employing over 3,000 people nationwide. AFFCO is

represented on six continents through a network of overseas offices and

agents. In addition to meat exports, AFFCO is a major meat supplier on

the domestic market, supplying high value premium meat cuts for the

retail, hotel and restaurant trade.

11. AFFCO continually invests in new technology and innovative systems to

improve the quality of products and efficiencies at its sites.

AFFCO HOROTIU PROCESSING PLANT 12. Meat processing has been undertaken at the Horotiu site for over 100

years. The site is owned and occupied by AFFCO. AFFCO also

operates a rendering plant at its Horotiu site. The rendering plant

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produces a range of protein meals and tallows for both export and local

markets.

13. AFFCO’s Horotiu operations maintain stringent animal welfare, food

handling and hygiene standards. AFFCO Horotiu has ISO 9002

certification and HACCP approval from the Ministry for Primary

Industries. It is certified for Halal slaughter and is United States

Department of Agriculture (‘USDA’) and European Union (‘EU’) certified.

AFFCO Horotiu’s operations are also regularly inspected and audited by

the Ministry of Primary Industries, Ag-Research and AUSMEAT.

14. As set out in the AEE, design wastewater loadings are based on an

annual maximum anticipated processing of up to 150,000 cattle,

100,000 calves, 1,800 tonnes of dried blood and 17,000 tonnes of

rendered product. Annual production throughput over past years has

not always attained these levels in every category every year, but over

the past eight years production has been close to these maxima at

various times (Table 1).

Category Units Peak annual production

nominal capacity Max annual production in past 8 seasons

Beef Kill head 150,000 142,393

Calf Kill head 100,000 202,580

Total carcass weight tonnes 39,000 39,551

Rendering MBM + tallow tonnes 17,000 26,240

Outside whole blood tonnes 1,500 5,094

Dried blood tonnes 1,800 1,770

Salt Whey m³ 6,000 ~4,000

Table 1: AFFCO Horotiu peak capacity vs maximum values for the

past 8 years

15. In addition to treating waste from its meat processing and rendering

plants at Horotiu, salt whey from Open Country Dairy’s Waharoa cheese

factory is also treated and disposed of in AFFCO’s wastewater treatment

system. Currently up to 200 cubic metres of salt whey is delivered by

tanker weekly1, and up to 5,500 cubic metres per year. These volumes

1 The weekly volumes of salt whey are not constant throughout the calendar year, but instead fluctuate with milk production levels in response to calving etc.

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may increase in the future to 250 cubic metres and 6,000 cubic metres,

respectively.

Open Country Dairy Ltd. – Dairy Processing Plant 16. In September 2015 Open Country Dairy Limited (‘OCD’) applied to the

Waikato District Council and Waikato Regional Council for resource

consents to construct and operate a dairy processing plant on a 6ha site

owned by OCD adjacent to the AFFCO Horotiu meat processing plant.

The approximate location of the dairy plant is shown in Figure 3 on page

3 of the AEE.

17. OCD is a company associated with AFFCO through common ownership

and common directors. It is the second largest dairy processor in New

Zealand and the world’s second largest exporter of Whole Milk Products.

OCD has operations at Waharoa (Waikato), Imlay (Whanganui) and

Awarua (near Invercargill).

18. In 2007 AFFCO applied for variations to the conditions of Resource

Consents 100578 (discharge treated wastewater) 100588 (pond

seepage to ground) and 100591 (discharge to air) to authorise AFFCO

Horotiu to receive and treat dairy processing waste from the proposed

OCD dairy processing plant. The variations were granted in 2010.

19. The waste water and condensate from the dairy processing plant will be

managed in the AFFCO Horotiu meat processing plant’s waste water

treatment system and the renewal consents sought by AFFCO will

continue to provide for this.

20. The proposed dairy plant involves the development of a milk powder

processing plant with an output capacity of between 16 and 20 tonnes

per hour. Plant buildings will contain driers, boilers, various storage

facilities and administrative facilities.

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21. OCD analysed the location of existing and projected future milk

production from farms in the Waikato Region and assessed the

advantages of the proposed site at Horotiu compared to other candidate

sites, including expansion of the existing Waharoa facility. The Horotiu

site was chosen for the following reasons:

(a) Reduction in milk collection kilometres, fuel use and associated

costs;

(b) Location in an appropriately zoned industrial area;

(c) Close proximity to trunk road links; and

(d) Close proximity to skilled work force.

22. The OCD resource consent applications have just completed a section

92 further information process initiated by Waikato District Council. The

District Council will, I understand, shortly make a decision on which

notification process will apply to the applications to be decided under the

Waikato District Plan.

AFFCO HOROTIU – CONSENT COMPLIANCE 23. AFFCO is committed to being a good corporate citizen. It sets high

standards in relation to both operations and product quality. AFFCO’s

brand reputation is a valuable asset. AFFCO’s operations at Horotiu

and elsewhere fully comply with all regulatory approvals.

24. With regard to AFFCO Horotiu’s compliance with its existing resource

consents, section 1.1 of the Waikato Regional Council (‘WRC’) Section

42A Report (‘42A Report’) confirms that AFFCO achieved high

compliance in respect of the annual audits carried out by WRC for the

years 2009/10 and 2010/11. The past three years have achieved partial

compliance. This primarily relates to late or absent reporting on some

matters. Significantly the 42A Report notes that the partial compliance

did not relate to a failure to meet the environmental limits. The 42A

Report identifies on page 5 that “compliance with discharge limits have

generally been very good as has the standard of monthly reporting”.

While compliance with operational matters is high, I acknowledge that

AFFCO needs to implement better procedures to ensure high

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compliance with some aspects of the administrative reporting

requirements of its resource consents.

25. AFFCO has comprehensive compliance requirements which relate to

many elements of its business, ranging from export certification of its

products all the way through to resource consent compliance. We take

compliance management very seriously and we are currently looking at

providing additional resources to avoid any future resource consent non-

compliances.

LOCAL AND REGIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY AFFCO 26. AFFCO Horotiu is one of the largest employers in the Waikato, paying

around $22 million per year in wages and salaries. The operation

employs approximately 500 staff at peak, mainly from the local area. I

am currently working with Waikato-Tainui to recruit staff for the Horotiu

plant for the upcoming summer period. The site utilises local and

regional contractors, with a significant annual contractor spend, most of

whom then proceed to spend their income locally. AFFCO Horotiu

makes a direct annual contribution of around $110 million to the Waikato

Regional economy as illustrated by the following data for the year to 27

September 2014:

Livestock & transport $85 million

Plant salaries & wages $22 million

Plant overhead costs $0.5 million

Repairs & maintenance $1.4 million

Corporate overhead costs $1.3 million

Total $110 million per annum

27. In addition to the significant contribution AFFCO makes to the Waikato

Regional economy, AFFCO also provides scholarships for education

and training, where possible encourages internal promotions, works

closely with local schools, authorities, Iwi and voluntary organisations

including the local volunteer fire brigade.

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28. The OCD dairy processing plant will provide a number of additional

economic benefits in the Waikato Region including:

(a) The construction phase of the dairy processing plant is

anticipated to provide employment for up to 250 people,

contributing approximately $6 million in wages and salaries to the

local economy per annum;

(b) The indirect economic benefits of the construction phase are

likely to include 20 additional jobs for local residents and $1.5

million per annum in additional wages and salaries;

(c) The operational phase of the dairy processing Plant is

anticipated to generate a demand for 60 full time equivalent staff,

contributing approximately $4 million in wages and salaries to the

local economy per annum; and

(d) Upon completion, the dairy processing plant is expected to

provide direct employment within the district of 60 full time jobs.

ENGAGEMENT WITH THE HOROTIU COMMUNITY 29. AFFCO Horotiu has undertaken considerable consultation with the

neighbouring community over the past 10 years. AFFCO holds

community liaison meetings on an annual basis as a condition of its

existing resource consents. Table 59 on page 145 of the AEE identifies

the number of public attendees and the issues discussed at each

community liaison group meeting held between 2005 and 2015. The

number of people attending the meetings has dropped from a peak of 44

in 2007 to just five and nine in 2013 and 2015 respectively. I believe this

reflects the significant improvements AFFCO has made to its Horotiu

plant to address odours, particularly because this coincides with the

changes made to the rendering plants driers, evaporator and improved

extractor ventilation in 2010. Those changes have, in my opinion,

resulted in a significant reduction in odour complaints since that time.2

30. In addition to the community liaison group meetings, AFFCO sends out

regular community newsletters informing the nearby residents of the

latest changes, improvements and programmes taking place at the

2 See Figure 51 of the AEE.

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Horotiu plant. The most recent newsletter was sent out to the

community in January 2015. Copies of the newsletters sent between

June 2007 and January 2015 (Issues 1 to 7) are attached as Annexure 1 to my evidence.

31. Three residents (two of whom live locally) lodged submissions in

opposition to the current resource consent applications. Each submitter

raises concerns relating to odour. AFFCO representatives (Garry Venus

and Albert Van Oostrom) met with one submitter, Sandra Gough in

October 2015 to better understand her concerns. Mr Venus’ evidence

will discuss the meeting with Ms Gough in more detail.

ENGAGEMENT WITH WAIKATO-TAINUI 32. Mr Garry Venus’ evidence will address the attempts AFFCO has made

to engage with Waikato-Tainui both prior to and after the lodgement of

the current resource consent applications. Unfortunately, despite

continued efforts by AFFCO to engage with Waikato-Tainui, including

contact as recently as 11 November 2015, no substantive feedback or

response has been forthcoming from Waikato-Tainui. AFFCO will

continue in its efforts to engage.

33. As noted in Mr Van Oostrom’s evidence, Waikato-Tainui receive a

newsletter advising the date and time of each community liaison group

meeting held by AFFCO. No representative from Waikato-Tainui has

attended any meeting. The last meeting was held in February 2015

following a January 2015 community newsletter reporting AFFCO’s

pending resource consent applications to renew Horotiu’s existing

consents.

34. AFFCO respects the importance of the land and the Waikato River to

Waikato-Tainui and remains committed to working collaboratively and

constructively with Waikato-Tainui in relation to matters of concern to

Iwi.

UPGRADES AND CAPITAL INVESTMENT 35. Over recent years, AFFCO has extensively refurbished the Horotiu

facility to maintain the company’s position in the meat export industry. In

2005 the meat plant was rebuilt at a cost of NZ$18 million. It is now one

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of the most modern beef plants in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one

of the largest beef slaughter and processing facilities in New Zealand.

36. The present capital value of the AFFCO Horotiu facility is estimated at

around $130 million.

37. The AFFCO Horotiu wastewater treatment system has been subject to

progressive upgrading since the grant of the existing resource consents

in 2001 as shown in Table 2 below. These changes have significantly

reduced odour nuisance and improved effluent quality.

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Date Upgrade Component

Apr 2013 Scum baffle installed around aerated pond outlet weir to reduce the discharge of algae

and prevent the discharge of floatable material.

Sep 2011 New flowmeter with telemetry system installed on final effluent discharge.

Apr 2011 CCTV inspection of concrete pipes at wastewater treatment system. Minor pipeline repairs

made.

Oct 2010 Commissioned waste heat evaporator for rendering stickwater solids recovery.

Apr 2010 Solids ponds and fellmongery pond taken out of service as not currently required.

Feb 2010 Commissioned biogas flare on digester pond – flare has operated well without problems.

Nov 2009 Synthetic membrane cover and biogas collection system installed on digester pond.

Oct 2009 Decommissioned save-all tank, installed bypass pipeline and relocated fellmongery pond

feed pump.

18 Jun 2008 Installed flow-control valve on aerated pond outlet.

20 Mar 2008 Replaced save-all pump (fellmongery pond feed pump).

Nov 2007 Undertook sludge level surveys on digester and aerated pond.

Feb 2007 Added four 15 kW aspirator aerators in aerated pond.

Dec 2006 Cleaned out Solids Pond 3.

3 Oct 2006 Commissioned gravity transfer pipes between balance pond, digester and aerated pond to

replace pumped transfer. Raised operating level of balance pond and digester pond. New

inlet location for aerated pond.

Sep 2006 Relocated fellmongery/solids ponds effluent inlet to digester from NW to NE end of pond.

Sep 2006 Cleaned out disused sludge lagoon.

6 Sep 2006 CCTV inspection of pipe between fellmongery and digester ponds.

Aug-Sep 2006 Raised embankments of balance and digester ponds; installed concrete wave band around

digester pond.

Feb 2006 Commissioned new beef processing plant resulting in reduced effluent volumes.

May 2006 Decommissioned and demolished anaerobic effluent clarifiers.

Nov 2004 Cleaned out pipes and sumps between save-all and balance pond. Pipes confirmed to be in

good condition.

Dec 2003 Updated wastewater operating manual.

Feb 2003 Cleaned out Solids Pond 2.

2002/2003 Major improvements to the operation of the rendering plant DAF system.

14 Aug 2002 Final effluent flowmeter became operational.

2002 Cleaned out Solids Pond 1.

2002 Improved balance pond crust stability by operating pond at near constant level.

2002 Discontinued stirring digester pond.

Table 2: Operational changes relevant to wastewater treatment at AFFCO

Horotiu

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38. The upgrades set out in Table 2 were, in part, required by conditions of

the existing resource consents and also represent AFFCO’s

commitment to ongoing improvements in waste water treatment.

39. In the last five years or so the meat industry has faced significant issues

including: exchange and finance cost rates; foreign protectionism; aging

plant; falling stock numbers due to drought, dairy conversions and

farming viability generally; over capacity that has been exacerbated by

falling stock numbers; and, more recently, the recession in our main

markets. These issues have affected the viability of the industry as a

whole and individual companies and plants.

40. AFFCO recognises the need to modernise and streamline plants in

order to ensure the viability of group operations. The economic issues

affecting industry viability, including falling stock numbers and over

capacity, remain of concern and the imposition of unrealistic cost

burdens on the Horotiu plant will impact on its commercial viability.

TERM OF CONSENTS 41. Long term strategic commercial decisions on the investment of

significant capital expenditure requires a reasonably secure commercial,

legislative and regulatory environment. AFFCO has sought a consent

term of 35 years for the renewal of the discharge consents in order to

provide this commercial security. Parts of the Horoitu processing facility

are already approaching 30 years in age with some parts exceeding that

age. Capital investments required to upgrade and future proof this aging

plant will require millions of dollars.

42. A reduction in consent term for the discharge consents from 35 years as

applied for, to the 20 year term recommended in the 42A Report would

not provide an adequately secure horizon to enable the AFFCO Board of

Directors to make long term strategic decisions relating to the

management of the plant, or relating to ongoing investments in routine

maintenance, monitoring or upgrades. AFFCO is committed to continual

upgrades of the Horoitu site. An upgrade of the wet side to rendering

and the onsite freezer tunnel combined exceeds a $10 million dollar

capital investment. This capital investment would take the plant well

beyond a 35 year operational life, therefore serious consideration would

be required prior to any investment if a lesser term than 35 years was

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granted. Given the particular economics of the meat industry, a consent

term of only 20 years may, in many cases, not provide the long-term

security needed for investment of the nature contemplated by AFFCO

for its Horotiu plant.

43. AFFCO considers that the use of a robust review clause as a condition

of consent, together with relevant monitoring and reporting conditions,

would provide a sufficient mechanism by which the ongoing

performance of the site can be appropriately monitored and assessed

over the 35 year term sought.

44. In my opinion, based on experience with AFFCO plants elsewhere, the

inclusion of review conditions coupled with consent duration of the term

sought, will provide WRC with the security and control it requires over

the existing and proposed operations at Horotiu. At the same time this

would provide the long term security that AFFCO requires in order to

view the ongoing operation and proposed expansion of the site as an

economically viable and sustainable strategic direction for the company.

CONCLUSION 45. AFFCO Horotiu has played an important part of the Waikato Regional

economy for 100 years, contributing significantly to the social and

economic wellbeing of the region over this time. AFFCO is one of the

largest employers in the district. A 20 year consent term as

recommended in the 42A Report does not adequately reflect AFFCO’s

contribution to the community, its ongoing commitment to Horotiu and

the Waikato District, its desire to be a good corporate citizen, its

willingness to co-exist with the wider community and the commercial

environment in which it must make commercial decisions.

46. AFFCO therefore encourages the Hearings Commissioners to consider

granting the resource consents applied for on the basis of a 35 year

term.

25 November 2015

Tony William Miles

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ANNEXURE 1

AFFCO HOROTIU COMMUNITY NEWLETTERS: ISSUES 1 TO 7

AFFCO Horotiu

Community Newsletter

Issue 1 June 2007

Welcome Welcome to this first issue of

our community newsletter.

Our aim is to keep our

neighbours better informed

about what is happening at

AFFCO Horotiu.

We hope to publish this

newsletter about twice a

year to keep you up to date

with changes and proposed

developments at the AFFCO Horotiu site, and, in particular,

progress with improving odour control.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.

Kind regards

Tony Miles

Operations Manager, Corporate Office

Plant Manager returns to the fold We must be a great place to work! Jamie Ginders, the

manager of the AFFCO Horotiu plant during 2004/05, has

returned to this position after some time away working for

a competing company. We are pleased to welcome him

back and look forward to the enthusiasm and leadership he

will bring to the role.

Environmental position created In keeping with our commitment

to environmental improvement,

we have recently created a new

Environmental Officer position at

AFFCO Horotiu. This full-time

position will enable us to be more

proactive and responsive to a

range of environmental matters.

Dene Hall, who has worked in the

AFFCO Horotiu Rendering Plant

for 11 years, has been appointed

to the job. His role includes effluent and odour monitoring,

responding to odour complaints, and assisting our

environmental consultants. Dene can be contacted on

0800 341 665.

Odour improvement At recent community consultation meetings, several

attendees expressed concern about a lack of progress in

addressing odour from the AFFCO Horotiu site. We would

like to assure you that AFFCO is committed to being a good

neighbour and reducing odour levels. While we believe the

odour levels have substantially reduced over the last 10

years, the recent rate of improvement has not been as good

as we would like. We accept that further improvements in

odour control are necessary and are working on achieving

this.

Rendering plant

The rendering plant, located at the north end of the site, is

the main source of odour. In the rendering process, inedible

animal tissues and blood are cooked and dried to produce

meat and bone meal, tallow and dried blood products.

Recently, as a part of major overhaul of the rendering plant,

much work was done to improve the containment and

treatment of odorous air streams and cooking vapours. This

involved installing extraction hoods, sealing up odour leaks,

increasing the flow capacity of the air extraction systems,

and rebuilding the main biofilter. The biofilter is a large bed

of pine bark through which the exhaust gases from driers

and other sources are filtered to remove odour.

Work on improving odour control in the rendering plant is

ongoing. We are constantly working to improve plant

maintenance and reliability so that raw materials are

processed as soon as possible and odour leaks are

minimised.

One of the biggest challenges remaining is to reduce smoke

emissions from our driers. Biofilters are not very effective

at removing smoke so we are looking at other ways of

controlling smoke emissions and associated odour.

Effluent ponds

The anaerobic treatment ponds sometimes produce a

sulphurous smell, which is due to hydrogen sulphide, the

same gas found around Rotorua. Also a “rancid-fat” type

odour may be noticeable if the loading of fat and other

organic matter is high. Our primary strategy for controlling

these odours is based on minimising the amount of waste

being discharged to the ponds through effective

housekeeping and effluent pre-treatment.

We have also been working on upgrading the effluent pond

system:

• We decommissioned and demolished the redundant

anaerobic effluent clarification process, eliminating this

source of odour.

• We increased the anaerobic treatment system volume

to reduce the effective loading rate and potential for

odour production.

• We installed additional aerators in the final effluent

treatment pond and relocated the pond inlet to give

better treatment performance.

Unfortunately, over recent summer months the benefits of

these improvements have been offset by problems with

blood collection and wastewater pre-treatment. These

issues have been resolved and we expect that the benefits

of the pond system upgrade will soon become apparent.

In our continuous efforts to reduce effluent pond odour we

are improving how effluent is distributed to the various

anaerobic ponds and looking at ways of recovering more of

the renderable fat and protein before the waste enters the

ponds.

New 0800 number for odour

complaints If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish to

make a formal complaint, please contact Dene Hall on

0800 341 665. Alternatively email him at

dene.hall@afffco.co.nz. Complaints may also be directed to

our Environmental Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone

856 8367 or 027 485 9234, email avo@albert.co.nz

AFFCO takes complaints seriously. For each odour

complaint, we try to identify the source and cause of the

odour, and opportunities to improve the situation.

Facts and figures Our new Horotiu beef processing plant, commissioned in

February last year, is the most modern beef plant in the

southern hemisphere. We process up to 150,000 beef

animals and 250,000 calves annually. The plant employs up

to 500 staff. One of the benefits of the new plant is that it

uses around 50% less water than the old plant.

Did you know? The rendering industry produces valuable products (tallow,

meat and bone meal, dried blood) from animal wastes that

would otherwise have to be disposed of by burial or

incineration. AFFCO operates rendering plants at Moerewa,

Te Puke, Wanganui and Horotiu. The Horotiu rendering

plant processes up to 360 tonnes or raw material per day.

About half of the raw material is sourced from other meat

processing plants. A preservative is added to keep the

transported material as fresh as possible.

Tallow accounts for around 40% of the product from

rendering. Currently most tallow is used for making soap,

but with demand for renewable energy sources on the rise,

there is growing interest in producing biodiesel from tallow.

Biodiesel can replace conventional diesel fuel in diesel

engines. It will be interesting to see how the biodiesel

industry develops in New Zealand.

Proposed dairy processing plant AFFCO is branching into dairy processing through a wholly

owned subsidiary. Dairy Trust proposes to build and

operate a milk powder plant on the AFFCO Horotiu site,

between the AFFCO Corporate Office and the main trunk

railway, just south of the existing beef processing plant. The

plant will have the capacity to process 1 million litres of

milk per day. While this sounds like a lot, Fonterra’s

Te Rapa factory can process more than 8 times this daily

volume.

Planning for the new plant is at an early stage and focussed

on ensuring that any environmental effects will be minor.

Consent applications have been lodged with Environment

Waikato to change two of AFFCO’s discharge consents to

permit the discharge of dairy processing wastewater into

the existing AFFCO ponds. These consents are for the

discharge of contaminants to air and the discharge of

treated wastewater to the Waikato River.

For both consent applications, AFFCO is not seeking any

increase in the level of contaminants permitted to be

discharged. The additional wastewater load will be

accommodated within existing consent limits by pre-

treating the dairy wastewater in a new membrane-covered

anaerobic lagoon and making minor changes to the

operation of the pond treatment system. Odour will be

controlled by containing and flaring the biogas from the

new anaerobic lagoon and ensuring that the dairy

wastewater is well treated before it enters the AFFCO

ponds.

Applications for Land Use and Air Discharge consents for

the dairy plant will be lodged when siting and design details

have been sorted out.

Environment Waikato will be notifying the applications to

all affected parties. AFFCO will ensure that neighbours who

might be affected will be notified.

Brickbats or bouquets - we welcome

your feedback Please feel free to give us any feedback on our

environmental performance. We would also welcome any

suggestions as to how we can make this newsletter more

informative.

Key contacts are:

Tony Miles (Operations Manager) 829 2888

Jamie Ginders (Plant Manager) 829 9501

Dene Hall (Environmental Officer) 0800 341 665

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367 or

027 485 9234

AFFCO Horotiu Community Newsletter Issue 2 April 2008

Hello again Welcome to this second issue of our community newsletter. We hope to continue to keep our neighbours better informed about what is happening at AFFCO Horotiu and let you know about changes and proposed developments at the AFFCO Horotiu site.

Kind regards Jamie Ginders Plant Manager

In this issue • Community liaison meeting • Changes to air discharge consent • Other consents changed • Dairy plant progress • Odour improvment plans • Odour questionnaire • Environmental Officer • 0800 number • Email or snail mail? • Your feedback is welcome

Community liaison meeting You are invited to attend our next community liaison meeting to be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday 8 April 2008 in the Horotiu Primary School Hall, Horotiu Bridge Road.

The purpose of the meeting is to:

• Outline options being considered to further improve odour control

• Discuss concerns that neighbours may have • Introduce an odour diary/survey programme

If you cannot attend this meeting and have particular comments or concerns that you wish to pass on, or if you wish to receive a copy of the meeting notes, please contact Dene Hall (phone 0800 341 665 or email dene.hall@affco.co.nz).

Changes to air discharge consent In January this year, Environment Waikato granted changes to our resource consent for odour discharges from the Horotiu plant to accommodate the planned dairy processing operation.

In granting the consent, the Environment Waikato hearings committee has significantly beefed up the consent conditions. New conditions include the following:

• That the new anaerobic pre-treatment lagoon for dairy wastewater and the existing anaerobic digester pond are both to be covered with a synthetic cover and the biogas flared.

• That the anaerobic digester pond cover and flare are to be installed and operational within 6 months of the consent being granted.

• That a laboratory-scale trial be undertaken of the proposed new anaerobic pre-treatment lagoon to verify whether the treatment system would perform as described in the consent application.

• Various conditions to avoid overloading the aerated pond in the event that the new anaerobic lagoon does not treat the dairy wastewater as well as planned.

• Various conditions to ensure that the covers and flares work properly.

• A condition to prevent odour from solid waste discharged into the wastewater treatment system.

• That the frequency of community liaison meetings be increased to 6-monthly unless otherwise agreed by the community members.

AFFCO has appealed the conditions relating to the 6-month period for covering the digester pond and the requirement to undertake and report on a laboratory trial of the new anaerobic treatment lagoon. We are currently negotiating these conditions with Environment Waikato.

We would like to make it clear that we offered to install a cover on the anaerobic digester pond and are committed to eliminating odour from this source. We are seeking a few more months to either install the cover or investigate and install a new large covered anaerobic lagoon system that could deal to odours from all of the anaerobic ponds for good.

You can read an Environment Waikato press release regarding the consent application at: http://www.ew.govt.nz/newsandevents/mediareleases/mr1275851.htm

Other consents changed We have also been granted changes to two other consents to accommodate the effluent from the planned dairy processing operation. These consents authorise discharges of effluent pond seepage to ground and treated wastewater to the Waikato River.

The changes to these consents were minor and did not involve any increase in the level of contaminants permitted to be discharged. The additional wastewater volume and pollutant load will be accommodated within existing consent limits.

Dairy plant progress Planning for the new milk powder plant is still at an early stage. Dairy Trust, the owner of the proposed new dairy plant, has recently lodged a consent application with Environment Waikato to relocate and culvert an open drain running through the site of the proposed dairy plant between the AFFCO corporate office and the main trunk railway.

Dairy Trust will also lodge Land Use and Air Discharge consent applications for the dairy plant when siting and design details have been sorted out.

Odour improvement plans Despite ongoing improvements in odour control systems, we have received an increase in odour complaints during recent months. We have made many fundamental improvements but it is becoming clear that some larger projects are going to be necessary to meet community expectations for odour reduction.

The digester pond, which has historically been the most odorous pond, has produced very little odour over the last two years. Other anaerobic ponds in the system are now the main cause of effluent odour complaints. As is often the case with odour, when one source is reduced, other sources become more apparent.

To more completely address pond odour, we are investigating the feasibility of replacing the anaerobic ponds with new technology: one or two large covered high-rate anaerobic lagoons. We are also looking at using the biogas for fuel in the plant boiler or driers.

Odour complaints relating to the rendering plant have mainly been due to problems with smoky emissions from the aging direct-fired meal driers. Repairs will soon be made to reduce this smoke, but for a more complete solution, we are looking at the feasibility of replacing these driers with steam-heated driers. Steam-heated dryers would eliminate the smoke and greatly reduce the volume and temperature of drier emissions discharged to odour treatment systems, freeing up treatment capacity to deal with other emissions in the rendering plant.

Over the next few weeks a new rendering plant is being commissioned at AFFCO Wairoa. As a result, the Horotiu plant will no longer process Wairoa offal on a regular basis and the average age of offal processed at Horotiu will reduce. We expect that this development will help to reduce rendering odour.

We are aware that many of our neighbours are concerned about a lack of progress in addressing odour from the AFFCO Horotiu site. We would like to assure you that AFFCO is committed to being a good neighbour and reducing odour. While we believe the odour levels have substantially reduced over the last 10 years, the rate of improvement has not been as good as we would like. We accept that further improvements in odour control are necessary and are working on achieving this.

A comprehensive odour-reduction plan with budgeting and timelines is being prepared and should be completed by

30 September this year. We will summarise the plan in the next community newsletter, and will schedule another community meeting to explain the plan and timelines.

Odour questionnaire Included with this newsletter is a questionnaire. We would greatly appreciate you spending a few moments completing the questionnaire and returning it in the self-addressed envelope provided. A good response rate will help us to monitor odour effects on the community.

Environmental Officer Last year we created a new Environmental Officer position at AFFCO Horotiu. This full-time position has enabled us to be more proactive and responsive to a range of environmental matters. Dene (pronounced “Dean”) Hall is enjoying the challenges of his new position. His role includes effluent and odour monitoring, responding to odour complaints, and assisting

our environmental consultants. Dene can be contacted on 0800 341 665.

0800 number for odour complaints If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish to make a formal complaint, please contact Dene Hall on 0800 341 665. Alternatively email him at dene.hall@afffco.co.nz. Complaints may also be directed to our Environmental Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone 856 8367 or 027 485 9234, email avo@albert.co.nz

AFFCO takes complaints seriously. For each odour complaint, we try to identify the source and cause of the odour, and consider opportunities to improve the situation.

Email or snail mail? Currently we distribute this newsletter by a mailbox drop and send a few copies by post and email.

If you would like to receive this newsletter by post or email, please let us know by contacting Albert van Oostrom, email: avo@albert.co.nz; phone: 856 8367.

If you know of anyone who does not receive a copy and would like to, let us know.

We welcome your feedback Please feel free to give us any feedback on our environmental performance. We would also welcome any suggestions as to how we can make this newsletter more informative.

Key contacts are: Tony Miles (Operations Manager) 829 2888 Jamie Ginders (Plant Manager) 829 9501 Dene Hall (Environmental Officer) 0800 341 665 Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367 or 027 485 9234

AFFCO Horotiu Community Newsletter 

Issue  3    December  2008   

Greetings Since our last newsletter and community meeting in April, we 

have been working to develop a new odour control plan for 

the site.  I am pleased to announce that environmental 

upgrades costing a total of $4‐5 million have been approved by 

AFFCO’s board for 

implementation in 2009. Please 

read on to find out more about 

our plans and other news about 

the Horotiu plant.  We hope that 

you will be encouraged by the 

progress we are making. 

Kind regards 

Jamie Ginders 

Plant Manager 

In this issue  Community liaison meeting 

New odour control plan 

Wastewater treatment improvements 

Questionnaire  results 

Odour diary 

0800 number 

Community liaison meeting You are invited to attend our next community liaison meeting 

to be held at 7:00 pm on Monday 15 December 2008 at the 

AFFCO Corporate Office, Horotiu 

The main purpose of the meeting is to provide more 

information on our odour control plans and answer any 

questions that you may have.  

We appreciate that this is busy time of year for everyone, but 

we would like to ensure the community is well informed of our 

plans. If you cannot attend the meeting and have particular 

comments or concerns that you wish to pass on, please 

contact Dene Hall (phone 0800 341 665 or email 

dene.hall@affco.co.nz). 

New odour control plan In October we submitted an outline of our new odour control 

plan to Environment Waikato for their consideration.  The plan 

addresses all three of the main sources of odour from the site: 

the rendering plant, anaerobic effluent ponds and paunch 

spreading. Key aspects of the plan are summarised below. 

Rendering  

The biggest change to the rendering plant will be the 

replacement of direct‐fired meal dryers with steam‐heated 

contact dryers. Steam heated dryers are environmentally 

best‐practice technology.  Benefits include: 

Elimination of the visible smoke and smoky odour 

produced by the existing meal dryers. 

An 80‐90% reduction in emissions from the meal drying 

process, which will free up capacity in the biofilter for 

deodorising emissions from other sources in the rendering 

plant. The lower volume of dryer emissions will also enable 

us to cool the gases to a lower temperature. 

With no smoke, and lower gas temperatures, the biofilter 

will perform better and last longer. 

The new dryers will come with an evaporator that uses 

waste heat in the dryer vapour emissions to recover 

product from the stickwater waste stream. This will greatly 

reduce the loading on the effluent ponds, and the 

increased product yield will help to offset the cost of the 

new process. Again, this technology is environmental best 

practice in rendering. 

We will also reduce leakages of odour (fugitive emissions) from 

cooking and drying processes.  This involves increasing the 

number of points from which we capture odorous vapours for 

treatment in the biofilter, and increasing the total volume of 

collected gases 2 to 3 fold. 

Wastewater  treatment  Previously AFFCO had committed to covering the digester 

pond with a synthetic membrane to eliminate odour from this 

source.  The new plan also includes covering the balance pond 

to provide a more complete odour control solution.  The total 

area of ponds to be covered is around 12,000 square meters. 

We will collect the biogas from both the digester and balance 

ponds and deodorise it by burning it off in a flare. In future we 

might use the biogas as fuel in the plant boiler.  

 

 

We do not expect that we will need to cover other anaerobic 

ponds at the site. The three anaerobic solids ponds produce 

very little odour and the loading on the “fellmongery” pond 

will be kept low to avoid nuisance odours from this source. 

Another effluent odour source we plan to eliminate is the 

“save‐all” tank.  We will decommission the tank next year. 

Digester Pond Balance Pond 

Paunch  spreading  We spread paunch grass (cattle stomach contents) onto 

paddocks around the site as a source of fertiliser and method 

of disposal. Historically we spread the material as fresh as 

possible to avoid strong odours that can result if the material is 

left piled up for a few days.  But spreading even the fresh 

material caused odour complaints from time to time. 

For six months, we have been using a new method for handling 

the paunch. This involves holding the material in small discreet 

piles or windrows around the site for 6‐12 months to stabilise 

it before spreading. We are finding that leaving the paunch in 

undisturbed piles produces little odour, and expect that 

spreading the stabilised material will not cause a problem. 

By the way, you may have noticed that we are growing a crop 

of maize on paddocks alongside Washer Road.  Because maize 

cropping has a high nutrient requirement, we are permitted to 

apply twice as much paunch onto the cropped land than onto 

grazed pasture. The cropping ensures that we have enough 

land on which to spread all of our paunch grass. 

Wastewater treatment improvements The odour control improvements are part of a wider plan that 

includes improving effluent quality and cost‐effectively 

treating effluent from Dairy Trust’s proposed Horotiu dairy 

processing plant. 

Several changes to effluent treatment are planned, including a 

new proposal for treating wastewater from the dairy 

processing plant. The previous proposal involved constructing 

a new covered anaerobic lagoon for pre‐treating the dairy 

effluent before further treatment in the existing pond system.  

The new proposal involves discharging the dairy effluent 

directly to the existing ponds.  We will create capacity in the 

existing ponds to accept the untreated dairy effluent by: 

recovering almost 100% of the rendering stickwater waste 

as meat and bone meal product in the planned new 

evaporator; 

recovering solids in the beef plant effluent by chemical 

treatment and dissolved‐air‐flotation (DAF), and processing 

these solids through the rendering system; and 

various modifications to minimise the hydraulic loading on 

the anaerobic ponds. 

The reduction in wastewater solids will more than offset the 

additional input of dairy wastewater. In fact, we expect 

substantial reductions in many pollutants compared to current 

levels, including a 30% reduction in the effluent nitrogen 

discharged to the River.  

Covering the balance and digester ponds will almost eliminate 

odour from these sources.  The odour will be controlled 

equally well with or without the treatment of dairy effluent. 

Questionnaire results Thank you to the 61 individuals or households who responded 

to the odour questionnaire that we sent out with the last 

newsletter. A summary of the results is given below. The wide 

range of responses reflects different circumstances 

(e.g. proximity to the plant) and sensitivity to odour.  

We regret that many people are annoyed by odour from our 

activities and very much hope that this situation will improve 

greatly with the completion of planned upgrades. 

Odour diary Many thanks also to the 17 individuals and households who 

participated in the six‐week odour diary programme carried 

out around May this year.  The number of odour events 

recorded ranged from 0 to 9 per participant, with an average 

of around four records each. Four participants did not record 

any odour. As with the results for the questionnaire, exposure 

to odour tended to reflect proximity to the plant. The location 

of diarists ranged from 100 m to 2.7 km away from the Horotiu 

site. 

By checking the records against wind direction data from our 

weather station, we found that most of the recorded odour 

events were consistent with having come from AFFCO.  

The effluent ponds and rendering plant were identified as the 

main causes of odour.  

0800 number for odour complaints If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish to 

make a formal complaint, please contact Dene Hall on 

0800 341 665.  Alternatively email him at 

dene.hall@afffco.co.nz. Complaints may also be directed to 

our Environmental Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone 

856 8367 or 027 485 9234, email avo@albert.co.nz 

We welcome your feedback Please feel free to give us any feedback. Key contacts are: 

Tony Miles (Operations Manager) 829 2888 

Jamie Ginders (Plant Manager) 829 9501 

Dene Hall (Environmental Officer) 0800 341 665 

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367 or 027 485 9234 

AFFCO Horotiu Community Newsletter 

Issue  4   December  2009   

Greetings This year we have been working on implementing the odour 

control plan outlined in our previous newsletter. One of the 

anaerobic effluent ponds has been covered with a membrane 

to contain odour, and two new low‐emission dryers are 

scheduled to be installed in the rendering plant early next year. 

Please read on to find out more about the progress we are 

making with controlling odour at the site and other news 

about the Horotiu plant.  

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous  and 

enjoyable New Year. 

Kind regards 

Jamie Ginders 

Plant Manager 

In this issue  Summary of odour control and 

wastewater upgrade plan. 

Progress on odour 

improvements. 

Progress on wastewater 

upgrades. 

Proposed milk powder plant. 

Community liaison meeting. 

Odour control and wastewater plan In our last newsletter (December 2008), we introduced a new 

plan for upgrading odour control and wastewater treatment at 

the Horotiu site. The planned odour control improvements 

include: 

Installing two new low‐emission meal dryers in the 

rendering plant. 

Upgrading the emissions extraction system in the rendering 

plant. 

Decommissioning the "save‐all" tank at the effluent 

treatment plant. 

Covering the anaerobic digester pond to contain biogas 

emissions for deodorisation by flaring . 

The planned changes to wastewater treatment involve: 

Installing a waste heat evaporator in the rendering plant to 

recover almost 100% of the strong "stickwater" waste 

stream as product. 

Recovering solids from the beef plant effluent by chemical 

treatment and dissolved air flotation (DAF), and processing 

these solids through the rendering system. 

Various modifications to reduce the volume of wastewater 

flowing through the anaerobic treatment ponds.  

The latter upgrades are  designed to improve the quality of 

treated effluent as well as create capacity to treat effluent 

from the proposed Open Country Dairy Ltd (formerly Dairy 

Trust Ltd) milk processing plant at Horotiu. 

As part of the process to obtain an air discharge consent for 

treating the milk processing effluent in the AFFCO ponds,  a 

detailed report of these plans was submitted to Environment 

Waikato for their consideration in April 2009. Environment 

Waikato's advisors have given the report a favourable review 

and we are now working to finalise the conditions of the 

consent. 

Progress on odour improvements Rendering  

AFFCO is spending approximately $3 million to upgrade odour 

control and effluent treatment in the rendering plant.  The first 

step,  a new roof on the rendering plant, was completed in 

October 2009. 

Major site work is scheduled to begin on 26 April 2010, with 

the installation of two new steam‐heated contact dryers to 

replace existing direct‐fired dryers. Benefits of the new dryers 

will include: 

Elimination of the visible smoke and smoky odour 

produced by the existing meal dryers. 

An 80‐90% reduction in emissions from the meal drying 

process will free up capacity in our biofilter to deodorise 

emissions from other sources in the rendering plant. The 

lower volume of dryer emissions will also enable us to cool 

the gases to a lower temperature. 

With no smoke, and lower gas temperatures, the biofilter 

will both perform better and last longer. 

At the same time, the system for extracting odour emissions 

from the rendering process will be upgraded by increasing 

both the number of points from which we capture odorous 

vapours for treatment in the biofilter, and  the volume of 

emissions extracted. 

The upgrade work is expected to take 3‐4 weeks during which 

the rendering plant will be shut down, and raw material 

trucked to other rendering plants. 

Save‐all  bypass  

The "save‐all" (see photo overleaf) is an old effluent 

sedimentation tank, which, in recent years, has been used only 

as a pump station. In October 2009 the save‐all was taken out 

of service by installing a new pump station and bypass 

pipeline, thereby eliminating odour from this source. 

 

The old effluent "save‐all" is no longer an odour source. 

Anaerobic  pond  cover  

In early November the anaerobic "digester" pond was covered 

with a 2mm thick plastic membrane made of UV‐resistant high 

density polyethylene (see photos below). Floats and pipes 

under the cover assist the collection of biogas for flaring. 

With just the cover and pipework in place there has already 

been a noticeable reduction in odour. Next month the flare will 

be installed to burn the biogas and eliminate the remaining 

odour from this pond. 

 

Removing floating weed from the digester pond. 

 

 

Preparing the cover anchor trench in the earth around the pond. 

 

 

The cover in place, November 2009. 

An engineering investigation is being undertaken into covering 

the "balance pond", which is another anaerobic pond about 

the same size as the one shown. 

Progress on wastewater upgrades The most important of the planned wastewater treatment 

improvements is the new waste heat evaporator, which is 

scheduled to be installed with the new rendering plant dryers 

in April 2010. The evaporator will use waste heat from the new 

dryers to concentrate and recover product from the rendering 

stickwater waste stream. The result will be a greatly reduced 

loading on the effluent ponds, improved effluent quality and 

more capacity to treat effluent from the proposed milk powder 

plant.  

Other planned upgrade work, such as the DAF treatment of 

beef plant effluent, will follow the installation of the 

evaporator and be completed before the milk powder plant 

begins operating. 

Proposed milk powder plant Plans for Open Country Dairy's proposed milk powder plant  at 

Horotiu are progressing.   

AFFCO has applied to Environment Waikato for changes to 

three consents to permit treatment of the dairy plant 

wastewater in the existing AFFCO ponds.  Two consents 

relating to pond seepage and the discharge of treated effluent 

to the Waikato River were granted in January 2008. Changes to 

the third consent, for discharges to air, are currently being 

finalised with Environment Waikato.  

Applications for Land Use and Air Discharge consents for the 

dairy plant have yet to be lodged so it is still too early to say 

when the new factory will become operational. 

Community liaison meeting Our last community liaison meeting was held in December 

2008. The turnout was low, perhaps because the meeting was 

too close to the peak of the holiday season. 

The next meeting is scheduled for February 2010 to avoid the 

Christmas rush. We will send out details closer to the date. 

0800 number for odour complaints If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish to 

make a formal complaint, please call us on 0800 341 665.  

Complaints may also be directed to our Environmental 

Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone 856 8367 or 

027 485 9234, email avo@albert.co.nz 

We welcome your feedback Key contacts are: 

Tony Miles (Operations Manager) 829 2888 

Jamie Ginders (Plant Manager) 829 9501 

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367 or 027 485 9234. 

AFFCO Horotiu Community Newsletter 

Issue  5   April  2010  

 

Greetings Welcome to our fifth community newsletter. We 

distribute these newsletters to about 400 households 

and businesses in the Horotiu area, and to other 

interested parties. 

The purpose of the newsletter is to let you know about 

the work we are doing to address odour issues and other 

environmental matters at the Horotiu site. 

We hope you appreciate 

the progress we are making 

and welcome any feedback 

you may have. 

Kind regards 

Jamie Ginders 

Plant Manager 

In this issue  Odour control plan update 

Biogas flare 

Community liaison meeting 

Odour complaints 

Key contacts 

Odour control plan progress update In our last newsletter (December 2009), we described 

our plans to upgrade odour control and wastewater 

treatment. The schedule and progress to date are 

summarised in the table below. 

We intended to start the rendering plant upgrade (tasks 

4‐6) later this month, but now have to delay this work by 

three months. 

The Horotiu offal was going to be trucked to our Imlay 

and Rangiuru rendering plants during the upgrade. 

However, because of a boiler problem at Imlay, they do 

not have the capacity to take the Horotiu offal. 

We now plan to begin the upgrade on 22 July 2010.  This 

date coincides with the end of the beef‐processing 

season and the start of the calf season, when offal 

production will be low enough for it to be processed 

entirely at the Rangiuru plant. 

We regret this delay and will endeavour to minimise 

odour and smoke from the existing plant. 

 

Odour control and wastewater system upgrade plan

Task  Timing 

1. Decommission save‐all tank  Completed October 2009 

2. Cover digester pond  Completed  November 2009 

3. Commission digester pond flare 

Completed February 2010 

4. Install low‐emission contact dryers in rendering plant 

Scheduled to begin in the week of 22 July 2010 (previously scheduled to begin in late April 2010) 

Rendering plant to be shut down for at least three weeks 

5. Install stickwater evaporator in rendering plant 

6. Upgrade rendering odour extraction system 

7. Treat beef plant effluent in the rendering DAF system 

Before commissioning of proposed dairy processing plant. No date set yet. 

8. Cover balance pond 

9. Install balance pond effluent recycle system 

10. Divert solids pond and fellmongery pond effluents to aerated pond 

11. Demolish save‐all tank and dispose of residual save‐all solids 

To be determined 

 

 

The two new low‐emission dryers are on site, ready for installation. 

Biogas flare In February, we installed a flare to burn the biogas 

produced by our covered anaerobic effluent pond. 

Flaring effectively eliminates the sulphurous odour of the 

biogas. 

A solar‐powered ignition system produces a spark every 

1.5 seconds to reignite the flame if it goes out, but we 

have not seen it go out! The flare is designed to produce 

stable combustion even under extremely windy 

conditions. 

A solar‐powered fan assists the flow of biogas through 

the flare and ensures that little or no biogas escapes 

unburned. 

We estimate that the digester pond produces 50 to 100 

cubic metres of biogas per hour. Burning this flow of 

biogas produces 300‐600 kW of heat. 

Potentially we could use the biogas as fuel in the plant 

boiler, but the amount of biogas produced is not likely to 

be enough to justify the costs involved, which include 

drying, storing and transporting the biogas, and 

modifying or replacing the boiler’s burner. 

 

 

Flaring deodorises the biogas produced by the covered anaerobic pond. 

Community liaison meeting Ten Horotiu residents attended our community liaison 

meeting on 1 March 2010.  We held the meeting at our 

effluent treatment plant to show the biogas collection 

and flaring systems in operation, and discussed plans for 

further odour control improvements. 

The next meeting will be in early 2011. We will send out 

details closer to the date. 

New Rendering Plant Supervisor We are pleased to 

announce that we have 

appointed Carl Bell as 

the supervisor of the 

Horotiu Rendering 

plant. Carl replaces 

Colin Hanson who 

headed the rendering 

plant for 9 years. 

Carl has worked as an 

operator in the 

rendering plant for 

8 years, and is relishing the challenges of his new role. 

Odour complaints So far this season we have received 50% fewer odour 

complaints than for the same period last year. This 

improvement has several possible causes including the 

covering of the anaerobic digester pond and an 

extremely late start to the processing season. In 

addition, very little offal from outside sources has been 

processed in the rendering plant this year, and it is likely 

that this situation will continue for the rest of the 

season. 

If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish 

to make a formal complaint, please call us on 

0800 341 665.  Complaints may also be directed to our 

Environmental Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone 

856 8367 or 027 485 9234. 

We welcome your feedback Key contacts are: 

Jamie Ginders (Plant Manager) 829 9501 

Carl Bell (Rendering Supervisor) 829 9514 

Dene Hall (Environmental Officer) 0800 341 665 

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367 

AFFCO Horotiu Community Newsletter Issue 6 April 2012

From the Plant Manager I would like to introduce myself. My name is Rebecca Ogg. I have taken over from Jamie Ginders as Plant Manager for AFFCO Horotiu. Jamie moved to Melbourne last November to take up a senior position with JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company. We wish him all the best in his new job.

I have worked here at Horotiu for four years as Production Manager. Before that, I worked at Auckland Meat Processors and completed a postgraduate diploma in meat industry operations.

I intend to continue Jamie’s commitment to ensure that we are a good neighbour and minimise our environmental impacts. In the 2 years since our last community newsletter, we have been busy implementing additional odour control improvements, in particular the installation of low-emission meal dryers, a waste-heat evaporator and new odour extraction equipment in the rendering plant. We hope you have noticed a substantial reduction in odour from our site and look forward to your feedback via the attached questionnaire and at our community liaison meeting on 16 April.

Please read on to find out more about the odour control improvements and other news about the Horotiu plant.

Kind regards, Rebecca Ogg Plant Manager

In this issue • Odour questionnaire

• Community liaison meeting

• Odour control progress update

• Air discharge consent finalised

• New cooling towers

Odour questionnaire Included with this newsletter is a questionnaire. Please take a few moments to answer the questions and return the completed form in the self-addressed envelope provided. A good response rate will help us to assess the effectiveness of our new odour controls and if any improvements are required.

Community liaison meeting We invite you to attend a community liaison meeting

at 6:30 p.m. on Monday 16 April 2012 in the boardroom at AFFCO’s Corporate Office, Horotiu.

The purpose of the meeting is to:

• Summarise recent odour control improvements. • Discuss any concerns neighbours may still have. • Discuss frequency of future meetings.

If you cannot attend this meeting and have particular comments or concerns that you wish to pass on, or if you wish to receive a copy of the meeting notes, please contact Albert van Oostrom, ph. 856 8367, email avo@albert.co.nz.

Odour control progress update In previous newsletters, we outlined odour-control plans for our site. We are pleased to announce that we have completed the planned improvements on schedule. In October 2010, we commissioned two new dryers and a waste-heat evaporator in the rendering plant, and in February 2011, we completed an upgrade of the rendering plant’s odour extraction and containment systems. Over the next few months, we will upgrade odour control systems in the blood drying plant.

Process changes to improve odour over the past four years are summarised in the table overleaf. They appear to be paying off – so far this processing season we have not received any odour complaints.

The two new low-emission meal dryers.

Summary of recent odour-control improvements Date Upgrade/change Benefits

Jun 2008

Discontinued rendering of raw material from AFFCO Wairoa

On average, rendered raw material is fresher and produces less odour

Oct 2009

Decommissioned save-all tank

Odour source eliminated

Nov 2009

Anaerobic digester effluent pond covered with a membrane

Odorous biogas from this pond is contained

Feb 2010

Began flaring the digester pond biogas

Burning the biogas eliminates its offensive odour

Oct 2010

Commissioned two new low-emission contact dryers for drying meat and bone meal in the rendering plant

• >90% reduction in odorous emissions from meal drying

• Elimination of smoke emissions

• Improved treatment of emissions in the odour-control biofilter

Oct 2010

Commissioned a waste-heat evaporator to recover product from the rendering stickwater waste stream

• Reduction in odour emissions from uncovered ponds

• Large improvement in effluent quality discharged to river

Feb 2011

Completed upgrade of rendering odour containment systems

Improved containment, cooling and treatment of rendering emissions

The new waste-heat evaporator recovers almost all rendering stickwater waste as product – reducing pond odour and improving effluent quality.

Air discharge consent finalised Last year, changes to our air discharge consent were finalised and signed off. The changes permit wastewater from the proposed Open Country Dairy Ltd Horotiu factory to be treated in our effluent ponds. Before treating the dairy factory wastewater, AFFCO is required to meet several conditions to ensure that the wastewater does not cause nuisance odour. These conditions include the following:

• Covering the anaerobic balance pond and digester pond and flaring the biogas. (We have already done this for the digester pond.)

• Provide reserve treatment capacity in the aerated pond (additional mechanical aeration as required) to prevent any odour from this pond.

Open Country Dairy still has to apply for Land Use and Air Discharge consents for the dairy plant, so it is too early to say when the new factory will become operational.

New cooling towers In December last year, we began operating new cooling towers for cooling our refrigeration plant. Previously we used large volumes of river water for this purpose. One benefit of the cooling towers is that they have reduced the volume of water that we take from the river by approximately 70%.

New evaporative cooling towers began operating in December 2011.

Odour complaints If you are being affected by odour from AFFCO and wish to make a formal complaint, please call us on 0800 341 665. Complaints may also be directed to our Environmental Consultant: Albert van Oostrom, phone 856 8367 or 027 485 9234.

We welcome your feedback Key contacts are:

Rebecca Ogg (Plant Manager) 829 9501

Carl Bell (Rendering Supervisor) 829 9514

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367

AFFCOHorotiuCommunityNewsletter

Issue 7 January 2015  

FromthePlantManagerIt is almost 3 years since our last newsletter.  However, 

since then, we have kept in touch with two community 

meetings. 

The focus of this newsletter is to let you know that many of 

our site resource consents are due to expire in July 2016, 

and we are in the process of preparing applications to 

replace them. 

As part of this process, we would like to invite you to a 

community consultation meeting on Monday 9 February. 

Please read on to find out more about our consent 

applications and the community meeting. 

Kind regards 

Rebecca Ogg 

Plant Manager 

InthisissueResource consent applications 

Water take from river 

Diffuser structure 

Wastewater discharge 

Dairy processing wastewater 

Community consultation meeting 

ResourceconsentapplicationsOn the 1st of July 2016, most of the resource consents held 

by AFFCO for the Horotiu site will expire. We are currently 

in the process of preparing applications for replacement 

consents from the Waikato Regional Council.  The existing 

consents to be replaced are listed in the table. 

AFFCO is proposing three main changes to existing 

consented activities, as follows: 

A 70% reduction in the permitted water take volume. 

Retention of the existing effluent/stormwater outfall 

location for discharge of stormwater only, and 

construction of a new effluent diffuser on the riverbed 

approximately 200 metres upstream of the existing 

one. 

The discharge of treated effluent to the river at the 

new diffuser location. 

Resourceconsentstobereplaced

No.  Activity Authorised 

100578 Discharge up to 7000 cubic metres of treated 

wastewater per day and associated stormwater to the 

Waikato River. 

100580 Discharge up to 42,700 cubic metres per day of 

condenser cooling water, stormwater and filter 

backwash to a tributary of the Waikato River. 

100586 Discharge up to 15 cubic metres per day of pressed 

paunch grass to land. 

100588 Discharge effluent treatment pond seepage to ground. 

100589 Discharge biofilter seepage to ground. 

100590 Discharge treated septic tank sewage to ground. 

100591 Discharge contaminants to air from rendering, blood 

processing, wastewater treatment systems, a gas‐fired 

boiler and miscellaneous emissions related to meat 

processing. 

100592 Take up to 29,000 cubic metres per day from the 

Waikato River. 

100593 Place a diffuser structure on the bed of the Waikato 

River. 

122160 Place a stormwater / cooling water outfall structure and 

associated control structures on the bed of the Waikato 

River. 

 

Further details are given below. 

WatertakefromriverIn December 2011, we began operating new cooling towers 

for cooling our refrigeration plant – replacing the use of 

large volumes of cooling water from the river. Because of 

this change, and other improvements in water use 

efficiency at the site, we can reduce our water take limit. 

We are seeking consent to take up to 8,500 cubic metres of 

water per day on a 7‐day running average basis, a reduction 

of 70% from the current limit of 29,000 cubic metres per 

day. We also propose to reduce the maximum abstraction 

rate from 370 litres per second to 150 litres per second in 

line with current pumping capacity and requirements. 

Nearly all of the water returns to the river as cooling water 

or treated effluent, so AFFCO’s take has no effect on the 

volume of water available for downstream users. 

DiffuserstructureThe existing effluent diffuser structure in the Waikato River 

is over 50 years old and requires replacement. We propose 

to remove in‐river elements of the outfall pipe and retain 

the pipe at the riverbank for discharging stormwater from 

car parking areas. For discharging treated effluent to the 

river, we propose to apply for consent to install a new 

diffuser on the riverbed approximately 200 metres 

upstream of the existing diffuser – as shown below. The 

new location has much better access for the construction 

and maintenance of a diffuser structure. 

 

The proposed diffuser design involves a single outfall 

pipeline buried in the bed of the river with four risers and 

eight diffuser ports near the centre of the river and close to 

the riverbed. 

WastewaterdischargeThe main proposed change to this activity is to discharge 

treated effluent at the new diffuser location.  

The existing consent allows AFFCO to discharge up to 7,000 

cubic metres of treated wastewater and associated 

stormwater per day at a rate of up to 100 litres per second. 

The new diffuser has been designed for this flow. The 

designers, CEE Consulting Environmental Engineers (based 

in Australia) specialise in the design of outfall diffusers. 

They have determined that the diffuser will achieve a 

minimum dilution of 200:1 within 200 metres downstream 

of the diffuser and 20 metres from the riverbank – under all 

conditions that we can expect to see. The rapid dispersion 

of the discharged effluent will avoid potential adverse 

effects of the discharge on aquatic organisms, recreational 

water users and AFFCO’s water supply. 

With waste minimisation and treatment improvements in 

recent years, AFFCO’s wastewater discharge consistently 

complies with all applicable consent limits. 

DairyprocessingwastewaterAFFCO’s existing discharge consents allow for wastewater 

from a proposed Open Country Dairy Ltd milk processing 

plant at Horotiu to be treated in AFFCO’s effluent ponds. In 

our new consent applications, we are seeking to retain the 

ability treat the wastewater from a possible future dairy 

processing plant at Horotiu.

The additional wastewater volumes and loads from the 

proposed dairy processing plant can be accommodated 

within existing consent limits. We will not be seeking to 

increase any discharge limits. 

Before accepting any dairy factory 

wastewater, AFFCO will be 

required to upgrade aspects of the 

treatment plant to ensure that the 

additional wastewater load does 

not cause nuisance odour. 

The timing of the dairy processing 

plant is uncertain at this stage. 

Open Country Dairy (OCD) has yet 

to apply for Land Use and Air 

Discharge consents for the dairy 

plant. Installation of the plant 

cannot begin until all necessary 

approvals have been granted to 

AFFCO and OCD. 

CommunityconsultationmeetingWe invite you to attend a community consultation 

meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday 9 February 2015 in 

the Cafeteria at AFFCO’s Corporate Office, 

Great South Road, Horotiu. 

The purpose of the meeting is to: 

Provide further information on the consent applications 

being prepared and seek feedback on our plans. 

Discuss any environmental concerns that you may have 

about our activities. 

If you cannot attend this meeting and have particular 

comments or concerns that you wish to pass on, or if you 

wish to receive a copy of the meeting notes, please contact 

Albert van Oostrom, phone 856 8367, email 

avo@albert.co.nz. 

WewelcomeyourfeedbackKey contacts are: 

Rebecca Ogg (Plant Manager) 829 9501 

Paul Geddes (Plant Engineer) 021 791 260 

Carl Bell (Rendering Supervisor) 021 791 085 

Albert van Oostrom (Environmental Consultant) 856 8367