One of the country's oldest marae claim they're being affected by toxic industrial activity in Mount Maunganui.
Whareroa Marae residents have sent a letter to the Prime Minister addressing their concerns but say nothing is being done about it.
The marae has been here for more than 150 years with industry springing up around the 80-strong settlement.
"We've seen kids curl over and start spewing up and then we've been hit with the odour from Lawter and Ballance," Joel Ngatuere said.
Mr Ngatuere wants heavy industries relocated away from residential areas and the marae.
“For us at Whareroa and for everyone in the Mount it needs to addressed, there's been a whole lot of talk around monitoring investigation and mitigation, but there's no talk around elimination," he said.
"We just want our families to breathe clean air, we want our elderly to breath clean air and we want our kids to breathe clean air.”
Bay of Plenty Regional Council invests $500,000 a year to monitor the air above the industrial area.
In the past year from November it has detected multiple examples of excess dust levels.
"We've been monitoring air quality down at Whareroa for the last five years because we are seriously concerned, as the community are, about the growing industrial area right around that area,” BOP Regional Council’s Sarah Omundsen said.
"So the research is back on the fact that the Mount Maunganui area, industrial area, is a polluted airshed, so the jury is back and the verdict is guilty our air quality is substandard and changes need to happen,” Emma Jones of Clear the Air said.
Neighbours Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Lawter NZ both say they have strict monitoring and comprehensive systems in place to minimise odour and health effects.
"We operate well below the consented levels, on 24-hour average,” Ballance operations manager Charlie Bourne said.
He says Ballance has invested more than $8 million in technology to improve its operations.
"The fertiliser smell that we have on site is the same as the fertiliser on a farm in New Zealand, and it's not causing any illness or harm,” he said.
Lawter NZ wouldn't appear on camera but told 1 NEWS while there are occasional issues with odour, it's not harmful and there is no factual evidence to back up claims it's causing illness.
Local health provider Toi Te Ora Public Health says poor air quality and health impacts in the area are concerning. It's been involved in a number of air quality and health issues in the past few years, including high sulphur dioxide levels and dust problems.
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