Quality of Uretara a high priority

AThe health of our freshwater is vital for the health of our people, environment, and economy.

s the weatherwarmsup and another hotsummer loomsmanyof will be exploring theirown backyard and making memories in someof the beautiful swimming spots in the western Bay of Plenty.

Oneplace the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been monitoring andmadepart of a “priority catchment” is the Uretara River.

The HenryRdford bathing site in the Uretara catchment is ranked as one of the highest risk bathing sites in the region, according to 2016/2017 Recreational Waters Surveillance Report.

Regional Councillor NormBruning says council has been undertaking investigative monitoring of this catchment since

2018 as it regularly exceeds the safe swimming guidelines for E. coli oversummer months.

Hesays the Uretara river at HenryRdford is ranked a ‘D’ grade river whichmeans that for 20-30 per cent of the time the estimated risk of falling sick is greater than 5 per cent.

“The health of our freshwater is vital for the health of our people, environment, and economy.”

So what’s causing it and what are wedoing about it? Naturalised bird populations, likelypu¯keko, appear to be the biggest contributor to the seasonally high E. coli results in the river, while a small part of the problem in the upper catchment is from pastoral grazing, Cr Bruning says. Because the Uretara has been identified as a priority catchment, the Regional Council is able to provide a higher level of subsidy to landowners to undertake restoration works like fencing and planting to mitigate contaminant loss to the river. In this case the contaminants include bacteria (E. coli), but also sediment and nutrients.

Over the past two years the Regional Council has assisted private landowners to retire 8ha of wetlands and riparian areas, including 2.5km of stream/wetland margin no longer having stock access.

“It also meansweare able to invest moreresources and effort into monitoring the state of the water quality to better understand the issue and identifyways to address it.

“This has been the impetus for the investigative monitoring over the past two years, a critical step,” he says.

In 2017 the Government set a national target of making90per cent

ofNewZealand’s large rivers and lakes swimmable by 2040, with an interim target of 80per cent swimmable by 2030.

Regional councils are required to develop regional targets to contribute to the goal.

Over summer this year due to high levels of E. coli, the Uretara River was again unsafe to swim in. A health warning still remains in place.

Councillor Norm Bruning