A foul smell is expected to leak into the air in the Chapel Street area in the next six weeks as the biofilter odour beds are replaced at the Chapel Street Wastewater Treatment plant.

The odour beds are now around 25-years-old and Tauranga City Council expects it will take until the end of May to complete the replacement works.

A foul smell is expected around Chapel Street as filters are repleaced at the wastewater treatment plant.

'Staff will be closely monitoring the works to keep any odours to a minimum as much as possible,” says a statement from the council.

'We are aware of an odour issue yesterday that affected at least one neighbouring business.”

Meanwhile, the odour issue at Te Maunga Wastewater Treatment Plant is noticeably reduced.

'We expect that by the end of today it will not be noticeable beyond the treatment plant boundary,” says council.

'The fault that caused the smell was fixed on Wednesday, but it takes some time for the biological treatment process to return to normal.”