Auckland Beach Water Quality

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networkn

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#281163 3-Feb-2021 09:24

Hi.

A few weeks/months ago, I am sure I saw a bunch of press about how many/most Auckland beaches were closed or strongly warning against swimming due to horrible water quality.

Today I checked safeswim.org.nz and most beaches are showing green.

Were the issues just very temporary or is that site a good one to use?

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#2646325 3-Feb-2021 09:42

Becoming more and more common here in Auckland that every time there is heavy rain the old water networks which there are still quite a lot overflow and mix storm water with waste water and pollute the many beaches peppered around Auckland.

Been no heavy rain for a while so they're safe to swim in for the time being

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#2646333 3-Feb-2021 09:55

I checked safeswim the day that article came out and all were green except the very small number of usual culprits. It seems to be a very brief transient problem after heavy rain, combined with click bait journalism

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#2646345 3-Feb-2021 10:11

shk292: I checked safeswim the day that article came out and all were green except the very small number of usual culprits. It seems to be a very brief transient problem after heavy rain, combined with click bait journalism

Its a valid problem, Just because it rains heavily ( which happens a bit in Auckland) sewers should not overflow...

Watercare are currently spending $1 billion to solve it,

The New Central Interceptor tunnel will be a huge game changer for Auckland's beaches....

https://www.watercare.co.nz/Central-Interceptor/Key-facts

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#2646353 3-Feb-2021 10:20

Speaking of that upgrade, due to complete in 2025, will they open any parts of it before, or it won't become operational till 2025?

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#2646446 3-Feb-2021 13:47

dt:

Becoming more and more common here in Auckland that every time there is heavy rain the old water networks which there are still quite a lot overflow and mix storm water with waste water and pollute the many beaches peppered around Auckland.

Been no heavy rain for a while so they're safe to swim in for the time being

Heavy rain is not exactly new in Auckland though? Wonder what has changed?

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#2646455 3-Feb-2021 14:08

population and more homes mostly, there's still still a considerable amount of homes connected to systems that were designed and built in the early 1900s and with so much land and being occupied now there's less chance of it just being absorbed by ground dirt

The amount of old homes being demolished in central - centralish auckland and being replaced by 3-4 town houses now just means the problem gets worse n worse, will get much better once the new watercare infrastructure is up n running

apparently it can depend on what time of day it rains as well, if it rains heavily in the morning while people are having their morning showers and doing their morning business there's more of a concentration of dirty shower/toilet water getting mixed in with storm water

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#2646456 3-Feb-2021 14:08

turtleattacks:

Heavy rain is not exactly new in Auckland though? Wonder what has changed?

More people, more houses, higher population density, insufficient spending on infrastructure upgrades. Probably exacerbated by more water use per person - mains pressure showers etc.

I'm in Chch, council home inspections to check for illegal connections to the sewage system use to be routine, they'd check for things like DIY roofing downpipe connections to sewage systems. Despite that, there was still a huge spike in inflow to the treatment plant when it rained. This caused not just problems with sewer capacity, but issues with running digestors etc at the plant.

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#2646461 3-Feb-2021 14:27

What is the state of technology being able to meter outbound water connections? Metering sewage connections would strongly encourage property owners to make connections to stormwater or setup soakpits etc.

I have a bit of a gripe as I have no storm water connection at all. Also Watercare forces me to pay for 78% of water I buy as waste water even though I estimate I may use 15% with all shower/bathwater and laundry water used for watering the garden.

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#2646463 3-Feb-2021 14:29

Fred99:
turtleattacks:

Heavy rain is not exactly new in Auckland though? Wonder what has changed?

More people, more houses, higher population density, insufficient spending on infrastructure upgrades. Probably exacerbated by more water use per person - mains pressure showers etc.

I'm in Chch, council home inspections to check for illegal connections to the sewage system use to be routine, they'd check for things like DIY roofing downpipe connections to sewage systems. Despite that, there was still a huge spike in inflow to the treatment plant when it rained. This caused not just problems with sewer capacity, but issues with running digestors etc at the plant.

With all due respect to their competency, wouldn’t it be relatively easy to look at population forecasts/growth and benchmark that against current processing capacity?

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#2646466 3-Feb-2021 14:43

Zeon:

What is the state of technology being able to meter outbound water connections? Metering sewage connections would strongly encourage property owners to make connections to stormwater or setup soakpits etc.

I have a bit of a gripe as I have no storm water connection at all. Also Watercare forces me to pay for 78% of water I buy as waste water even though I estimate I may use 15% with all shower/bathwater and laundry water used for watering the garden.

I believe that outbound meters are available but you have to ask for them and probably pay a fortune for them to be connected however there are two issues, 1) large parts of older Auckland still have conjoined sewer and storm water, some of it is not that old, only 1950's 2) lots of cowboy connections to the wrong network.

I personally believe that all new houses should have 10,000 - 20,000 storm water storage, this to be used to flush the loo and water the garden etc, will take pressure off the pipes when it rains.

Auckland ( and other parts of NZ too ) has grown far too fast and infrastructure has not kept up ( or been invested in ) to cope.

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#2646470 3-Feb-2021 14:56

turtleattacks:

With all due respect to their competency, wouldn’t it be relatively easy to look at population forecasts/growth and benchmark that against current processing capacity?

I'm sure that's done very competently.

A problem is that wastewater is underground thus out of sight which places (inevitably expensive) upgrade and maintenance at a disadvantage against other visible and desirable and thus politically advantageous projects that councils spend ratepayers money on.

Also "everybody" seems keen to address housing shortages, but nobody wants to pay for the infrastructure upgrades needed to support that growth.

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#2646473 3-Feb-2021 15:08

One other comment, high faecal bacteria counts in waterways is not entirely due to sewage leak into stormwater, but doggy-doos etc being washed into stormwater when it rains.

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#2646476 3-Feb-2021 15:31

Zeon:

What is the state of technology being able to meter outbound water connections? Metering sewage connections would strongly encourage property owners to make connections to stormwater or setup soakpits etc.

I have a bit of a gripe as I have no storm water connection at all. Also Watercare forces me to pay for 78% of water I buy as waste water even though I estimate I may use 15% with all shower/bathwater and laundry water used for watering the garden.

I dont have a stormwater connection at my place because in what ever year the put the stromwater pipes in they decided to stop 3 houses away. It would cost me about $25k to connect to that, or about $30k to have a proper retention detention system installed.

Why should i have to pay for this when the council hasn't been able to provide me with the correct facilities to correctly segregate my waste and storm water systems?

We were lucky and the council allowed us to have a kerb connection for our storm water from our garage which we have just build and i intend to connect the house to this down the line.

The neighbors have just had the same thing happen for them, no stormwater so were allow to connect to the kerb.

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#2646511 3-Feb-2021 16:27

Fred99:
turtleattacks:

With all due respect to their competency, wouldn’t it be relatively easy to look at population forecasts/growth and benchmark that against current processing capacity?

I'm sure that's done very competently.

A problem is that wastewater is underground thus out of sight which places (inevitably expensive) upgrade and maintenance at a disadvantage against other visible and desirable and thus politically advantageous projects that councils spend ratepayers money on.

Also "everybody" seems keen to address housing shortages, but nobody wants to pay for the infrastructure upgrades needed to support that growth.

Yip. No one wants to pay so councils restrict land supply so house prices go up. Rinse and repeat.

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#2646541 3-Feb-2021 17:40

NZ cannot be the only place with such issues. Has any overseas best practice been investigated, I wonder.

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