Waikato beach water monitoring underway

Waikato Regional Council’s five-month coastal water monitoring programme is underway.

From November to March every year, the council assembles a team of student scientists who trek across the Waikato to collect water samples at our most popular beaches and swimming sites.

The students completed surf safety training with Raglan Surf Life Saving Club last week, ready to wade knee deep out into the surf and fill sample containers for E. coli and enterococci.

The samples are lab tested to determine whether the water bacteria levels are safe for beachgoers to swim or surf. The council shares this data publicly via Land Air Water Aotearoa (LAWA) and directly to Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora who decides whether to issue public health warnings.

Council Coastal and Marine Science Team Leader Dr Michael Townsend says that last year was another stellar year for beach water quality.

“Across our nine beaches and 21-week season, we didn’t record any results indicating that water quality was unsuitable for swimming, and we had only two ‘caution advised’ results after some rainfall. This is why we always encourage people to avoid swimming in water for up to two days after heavy rain.”

The beach sites include seven on the east coast (Buffalo Beach, Hot Water Beach, Tairua, Pauanui, Whangamatā, Onemana and Whiritoa) and two on the west coast (Sunset Beach at Port Waikato and Ngarunui, near Raglan).

While most Waikato beaches maintain excellent long-term grades, the region’s estuarine swimming spots see more fluctuations due to flushing of catchments and the increased freshwater influence.

Last summer, estuarine spots recorded seven incidences of sites being unsuitable for swimming and seven occurrences of caution being advised, across both bacterial indicators.

This result improves on the year before and, consistent with previous years, the poor results usually followed rain in the catchment.

The four estuarine sites are Pepe Inlet at Tairua, Whangamatā Harbour entrance, Whāingaroa Harbour (near the motor camp), and Maraetai Bay at Port Waikato.

Before people swim, Dr Townsend encourages them to head over to the LAWA website, find the most recent results and use them to make a judgment call along with the weather since, and the conditions they find at their chosen swimming spot.

LAWA's Can I Swim Here? page lets you check a spot's water quality at the time of sampling before you head out. You can find it here: https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/swimming/

Above: Council staff and students at surf safety training with Raglan Surf Life Saving Club (Dr Michael Townsend, back row – right).