Did toilet paper hit the beach?
Parts of Pt Chevalier Beach were spotted with bits of what was thought to be toilet paper this week.
A member of the public contacted the Herald saying that she was out walking her dog on Tuesday when she saw toilet paper had been washed up at the high tide mark all along the beach.
She did not see any sewage or other related items, but said she had heard about the situation at the beach from other locals.
“Fortunately, not many people [were] on the beach because of the cold weather,” the woman said.
“But it was packed with families over the weekend,” she added.
On the SafeSwim website, the beach is classified as being a safe place to swim.
The water quality is deemed to be low risk and meets national guidelines that say there is very low risk of infection there.
A spokeswoman for Auckland Council said debris at the beach this week was the result of “recent rain entering and overwhelming the wastewater system”.
“This area of Auckland has a combined wastewater/ stormwater system,” she said
The council said that a new project — which had been dubbed the Central Interceptor — was expected to reduce the volume of overflows by 80 per cent and would benefit the environment hugely as a consequence. “The 13km Central Interceptor wastewater tunnel will run deep below Auckland — 110 metres at its deepest point — from Western Springs to a new pump station at the Ma¯ngere Wastewater Treatment Plant,” the council spokeswoman said.
“At 4.5 metres diameter, it will be Auckland’s largest wastewater tunnel and the biggest wastewater project ever undertaken in New Zealand.”