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Summer swim spot test results online

 

Annual summer water quality tests, which indi-cate how suitable North-land’s most popular beaches, rivers and lakes are for swimming,began on Monday November 24 and will run until the sec-ond week of March.

Northland Region-al Council member Joe Carr, chairman of the council's Environmental Management Commit-tee, says staff have been monitoring bacterial lev-els at popular swimming spots over the summer for more than a decade.

Hundreds of samples will be taken from 47 coastal and 13 freshwa-ter sites Northland-wide to check bacterial levels at beaches, lakes and riv-ers most often used for swimming, water sports and similar forms of rec-reation.

Test results will be posted online every Fri-day at nrc.govt.nz/swim-mingallowing Northland-ers and holidaymakers to make informed decisions about where they swim.

Depending on the

number of bacteria in them, samples get one of three grades:Green (suit-able to swim), Amber (po-tentially unsuitable for swimming) or Red (un-suitable for swimming).

Weekly results are also forwarded to the Whangarei, Far North and Kaipara District Councils, the Northland

District Health Board (NDHB) and other inter-ested parties.

"The NDHB and rel-evant district council are informed of any results showing elevated bacte-rial levels within 24 hours and it's then the board and the appropriate dis-trict council's responsi-bility to take action," says Councillor Carr.

That can include fur-ther site investigations to establish the source of any contamination, public warnings not to swim or gather shellfish, and putting up perma-nent warning signs at the worst sites.

There are four simple tips people can follow as a useful rule of thumb

when trying to judge wa-ter quality:

• Don't swim if there are warning signs indicating unsafe water; • Don't swim for two or three days after heavy rain; • Don't swim if wa-ter looks dirty/murky, smells or has scum on its surface; • Be aware of potential sources of contamina-tion – both nearby and upstream.

"Fortunately, most of the popular spots we monitor are usually suit-able for swimming, al-though Northland's high rainfall and hilly terrain means these can be tem-porarily contaminated by run-off from the land for several days after heavy rain," says Councillor Carr. „ Report concerns about water quality to the regional council's Environmental Hotline on (0800) 504 639. Check water quality at your favourite spot online at nrc.govt.nz/swimming or freephone 0800 002 004.
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