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Revealed: Auckland s dirtiest beaches
Revealed: Auckland s dirtiest beaches Sun, 22 Jan 2017, 6:55AM
Swimming has been banned at 10 Auckland beaches this summer because of worsening pollution from human and animal wastes.
Permanent signs declaring that the water is not safe for swimming went up at the start of summer at Laingholm and Wood Bay near Titirangi, the north and south lagoons at Piha, and at the Bethells Beach lagoon - all popular swimming spots for children too young to swim in the wild west coast surf.
Auckland Council has now stopped routine monitoring of water quality at all five sites, as well as at five other beaches that already had permanent warning signs - Cox s Bay, Meola Reef, Weymouth, the Wairau Stream outlet at Milford Beach and Little Oneroa lagoon on Waiheke Island.
Revealed: Auckland s worst beaches for swimming
Mission Bay, pictured, is regularly unsafe for swimming because of sewage overflow. Photo/ Dean Purcell
Revealed: Auckland s worst beaches for swimming Sat, 16 Jan 2021, 1:17PM
Auckland s worst beaches have been ranked in damning new data as a $106 million rates rise to clean up sewage from them is being fast-tracked by politicians.
A push to raise Auckland s water quality targeted rate (WQTR) by up to 5 per cent every year for the next decade would mean by 2030/31 the average residential property would be paying $94 to fix the city s legacy sewerage system.
The average business would be paying $435 in water quality rates in a decade s time.
Auckland s worst beaches: Urgent rates rise required, worst-polluted sites ranked
15 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
5 minutes to read
Hobson Bay, in inner Auckland, has a permanent warning sign because of sewage in the water, making it unsafe for swimming. Photo / File
Hobson Bay, in inner Auckland, has a permanent warning sign because of sewage in the water, making it unsafe for swimming. Photo / File
Tom Dillane is a reporter at the New Zealand Heraldtom.dillane@nzme.co.nz@tomdillane1
Auckland s worst beaches have been ranked in damning new data as a $106 million rates rise to clean up sewage from them is being fast-tracked by politicians.
The red warning is triggered when there s a greater than 2 percent chance of getting sick from swimming at a beach.
St Heliers, Herne Bay, Browns Bay, Cockle Bay and Beach Haven are all on a short-term high-risk warning.
Further south, Glenbrook Beach and southern Manukau s Sandspit have also been labelled high-risk. A huge number of high-risk swimming warnings are in place for Auckland beaches. Photo credit: Safeswim
The warnings come after wastewater systems were overwhelmed by heavy rain during the weekend. The Council s Safeswim website has issued 12 beaches with a heightened long-term warning, advising people: Do not swim.
Long-term high-risk areas