Murky river a concern for residents
Water in the Uretara River, that runs behind Katikati township, turned amurky brown colour last Thursday concerning nearby locals.
Katikati resident Kate LomanSmith said it was disappointing to see amassive plume of sediment floating downthe Uretara river on Thursday.
She said a Bay of Plenty Regional Council officer spent considerable time investigating the source of this sediment plume and a potential
cause was identified— stream crossing works at the HenryRdFord.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council received two complaints over the river’s water discolouration and last Thursday, aRegulatory Compliance Officer conducted extensive area inquiries along the Uretara River from RawakaDrive to the Haiku public reserve to assess water clarity and locate the discolouration source.
The investigation identified the HenryRdUretara River ford crossing as the potential source, although the council is carrying out further investigations to confirm that.
The regional council has a comprehensive, region-wide recreational bathing water quality monitoring programme, which includes the HenryRdFord site on the river.
Samples are collected weekly as part of this programme and results
are uploaded to theLAWAwebsite.
“The permanent health warning at Uretara reflects a pattern of compromised water quality during thesummermonths, andweare investigating the situation through our ‘Focus Catchments’ programme,” said environmental water quality scientist James Dare.
“DNAmethods have identified an avian signature associated with water samples, with additionalDNA evidence showing large numbers of pu¯keko in the area.”
Kate said discussions with parties are ongoing. i
Monitoring data for this site, including E. coli levels can be viewed in Council’s online data portal envdata.boprc. govt.nz or LAWA website www.lawa.org.nz/exploredata/bay-of-plenty-region/ swimming/uretara-at-henryrd-ford/swimsite