Contaminated Mission Bay among a dozen top Auckland beaches Council says don't swim in

February 12, 2018
Water quality forecast - arrow in alert zone

A litany of Auckland's most popular beaches are today unfit to swim after sewage leaks were caused by overflowing stormwater in yesterday's heavy deluge.

There are now 11 beaches on Auckland Council's Safeswim website that have active water quality alerts.

The busy Mission Bay Beach in Auckland's east is one of these, and the contamination along Auckland's coastline continues 15 kilometres upwards along Auckland's North Shore, up to Mairangi Bay Beach.

The description of the conditions on the Safeswim website is: "Real time sensors or manual inspections of the wastewater (sewage) network have detected wastewater overflows affecting swimming spots – swimming is not advised."

Contamination of Auckland's beaches does regularly occur following large storms when overflowing stormwater seeps into the city's sewerage system.

Auckland Council typically discourages people from swimming in the city's beaches for 48 hours following a major storm event.

However, with nearly a dozen beaches with water quality alerts, this level of contamination is quite rare.

The 11 Auckland beaches with water quality alerts are:

- Mission Bay Beach
- Browns Bay
- Castor Bay
- Herne Bay
- Home Bay
- Mairangi Bay
- Milford South
- Narrow Neck
- Okahu Bay
- Point England
- St Mary's Bay

To keep up to date with the water quality of Auckland beaches visit Auckland Council's Safeswim website.

SHARE ME

More Stories