HBRC launches Swim Through Summer Campaign

With summer well and truly upon us Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is encouraging people to get out and enjoy the great swimming spots the region has to offer.

It’s just launched a ‘Swim Through Summer’ campaign highlighting the superb coastal beaches and rivers in Hawke’s Bay and the work the council does to monitor them throughout summer.

HBRC Group Manager Resource Management Iain Maxwell says the council’s science team regularly monitors water quality at more than 30 popular recreational water spots from November through to mid-March every summer.

“The sites we monitor were selected after surveying the public about their favourite swimming spots and measuring them against the national guidelines,” says Mr Maxwell.

The public can check if their favourite swimming spot is ‘good to go’ by clicking on the ‘Swim through Summer at www.hbrc.govt.nz .

At the end of the season HBRC calculates the “suitability for recreation grade” for each of the swim spots it monitors. It combines the weekly sampling over the previous five years, with a catchment risk assessment to produce a grade between “Very Good” and “Very Poor”

Iain Maxwell says there’s a misconception that Hawke’s Bay rivers and beaches are not suitable for swimming and that’s simply not true.

“The water quality at Hawke’s Bay beaches is excellent most of the time, and while our rivers and streams can be affected by run-off after heavy rain they are typically OK to swim during the summer during periods of settled flow.”

The results of HBRC’s summer monitoring are shared on the national Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) www.lawa.org.nz website, which aims to be New Zealand's most comprehensive source of water quality, water quantity and air quality data. It provides the current state and trend information for New Zealand's rivers and lakes, water use and availability, bathing beaches and air quality.

14 December 2017

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