Napier City Council says it's committed to pond clean-up, as regional councillor calls for more to be done, faster

People were advised not to swim in Pandora Pond, thanks to pollution in the water. Photo / Warren Buckland

Napier City Council says it's committed to fixing the recurring problem of pollution in Pandora Pond.

But a regional councillor says the city council and his own council need to be doing more, faster, to sort the issue.

On Friday levels of E. coli and Enterococci were too high for safe human contact with the water, with warning signs placed at the Humber St Reserve after run off caused the latest problem.

Napier City Council says it, along with other entities including Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Landcorp Farm and Hawke's Bay Airport, as well as private residents and farms, all discharge water into the estuary during rainfall.

However, Napier City Council says it is committed to solving the issue, chief executive Wayne Jack saying money was set aside to fix the problem.

"NCC, through its Long Term Plan, has committed to spending $20.6m on stormwater improvements, and $25.7m on wastewater improvements over 10 years," Jack said.

"The LTP is clearly focused on water and a number of core infrastructure projects."

"We have several staff solely dedicated to improving water quality related to the estuary."

However, Hawke's Bay Regional Councillor Rick Barker says more needs to be done faster.

He said it was disgraceful that the swim leg of Hawke's Bay's iconic IronMaori half ironman event had to be canceled because of pollution.

"It's a terrible advertisement for Hawke's Bay for these people to come here and have an event such as that cancelled because of pollution in the Ahuriri Estuary."

"I think both Napier City Council and the regional council needs to look at themselves pretty closely about what we can do, and do it fast, is the message."

He said it was not good enough to simply pass the problem off as a legacy issue, or say it is a long term problem.

He said both councils and other interested parties needed to ask what could be done in the short term to fix the problem.

"If we started tomorrow to fix it, it would be fixed quicker."

He said a lot could be achieved by talking to people whose runoff is going into the estuary.

"You don't have to pass a bylaw, we just simply ask them."

Jack said five of the first 12 steps of the Ahuriri and Coastal Edge Master Plan are to do with stormwater and waste water improvement.

"We're also investigating the integrity of the sewer pipes that cross over the stormwater network, and will be starting "smoke testing" to identify illegal connections into the stormwater and wastewater networks."