Coastal water quality

KEY		Public health District Health Board warnings may still remain in place when a site moves from red to green. For more information, click here or call Health Protection on 06 753 7798 (24 hours).
	Surveillance mode Less than 141 enterococci/100ml in single sample.
	Alert mode 141 - 280 enterococci/100ml in single sample.
	Action mode More than 280 enterococci/100ml in two consecutive single samples.

The Taranaki Regional Council undertakes microbiological water quality monitoring at a number of popular beach around Taranaki during the summer months (November to March) to:

• Assess the water quality of popular bathing sites in Taranaki.
• Compare bathing water quality in Taranaki with national guidelines for contact recreational use of water.
• Monitor trends in bathing water quality over time.

Bathing water quality is assessed according to concentrations of indicator bacteria. For marine beach sites this is enterococci bacteria. These bacteria are indicators of faecal contamination. If there is faecal contamination there is a possibility of the presence of disease causing organisms such as bacteria, viruses and protozoa. These organisms may pose a health hazard when the water is used for recreational activities such as swimming, board riding and other high contact activities. Poor recreational water quality can possibly cause gastrointestinal illness and respiratory health effects, such as coughs and colds.

A high concentration of the indicator bacteria means that it is more likely that disease-causing organisms are present. It does not mean that anyone swimming in the water at the time will actually be affected.

Water quality safety is assessed and reported according to the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry of Health 'Microbiological Water Quality Guidelines for Marine and Freshwater Recreational Areas' revised and issued in 2003.

These guidelines categorise recreational bathing sites into one of three 'mode' categories according to single sample results of E. coli (freshwaters) and enterococci (marine waters) bacterial counts. For marine beaches, these are:

The safety category is reassessed after each additional sample is collected. Sites on the maps reflect the coloured safety category and level of compliance with the guidelines at the time of the most recent sample.

In Taranaki, it is known that significant rainfall events substantially increase bacterial levels in rivers and streams (and subsequently in coastal waters along the shoreline) due to rural and urban runoff for up to several days after rainfall. This may increase numbers into the Action mode category for recreational usage. However, for trend detection purposes the Taranaki Regional Council does not sample river and beach waters within three days of any significant rainfall event.

The results of the water samples collected from fresh water and coastal sites during the bathing season are updated on this site as they are received from the laboratory.

For more information contact the Taranaki Regional Council:

Email: info@trc.govt.nz

Phone: 06 765 7127

Fax: 06 765 5097