Key points
This indicator measures water quality of coasts in terms of enterococci (faecal bacteria) levels. Environment Waikato monitors a representative sample of swimming beaches around the Waikato Region to determine how good the water quality is for contact recreation such as swimming and surfing.
- The Waikato region’s coastal waters are usually satisfactory or better for contact recreation such as swimming. Often, water quality is excellent.
- Some beaches occasionally have high bacteria levels.
Proportion of samples (%) collected on the West Coast, Hauraki Gulf and East Coast from 2001 to 2009 which met the ‘excellent’ standards for contact recreation on the coast – Waikato region
Source: Environment Waikato data spreadsheets for coastal water quality
Notes: Data collected over the summer 2000-2001 is labelled 2001 in the table (and so on for the other years). Guidelines changed in 2003 (2002 data was updated to use 2003 guidelines). For all surveys except 2001 the categories for enterococci levels are as follows; “excellent” <28 (no./100mL), “satisfactory” 28-280, “unsatisfactory” >280. For 2001 an average was taken of the median and single samples, where median categories were; “excellent” <2.1 (no./100mL), “satisfactory” 2.1-35, “unsatisfactory” >35 and single sample categories were; “excellent” <8 (no./100mL), “satisfactory” 8-136, “unsatisfactory” >136. Detailed results for individual sites sampled are available from Environment Waikato.
What agencies are doing
- Environment Waikato monitors coastal water quality to update this indicator and to assist policy making and consent decisions.
- We manage and require monitoring of resource consents to discharge wastewater and other substances into rivers and the coastal marine area.
- We promote land management that protects coastal water quality.
- We support Care groups. Their riparian management work helps decrease contaminant runoff to the sea via streams and rivers.
- Thirty-five ‘Coasts and Us’ school programmes have been initiated.
- We administer the Marine Pollution Regulations, which control discharges to coastal waters from boats and ships.
- We prohibit stock from the coastal marine area.
What you can do to help
- Fence off streams and coastal margins to prevent stock access to waterways.
- Leave an ungrazed buffer strip to act as a filter between farmland and waterways.
- Manage farm effluent and grazing carefully, to avoid runoff of faeces to water.
- Regularly pump out septic tanks in coastal areas.
- Follow Environment Waikato’s on-site sewerage rules for septic tank design. Find out more about activities requiring consents from Environment Waikato.
More information
More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.
What we want to achieve
The community outcome we are seeking to achieve by monitoring coastal water quality for recreation is:
- Our coastal and waterway environments are restored and preserved and access to them is maintained.