Alton Jamieson: We should not wait another 10 years for clean beaches

Aucklanders need to make it clear to the council that our beaches need to be cleaned up as a matter of urgency. Photo / Dean Purcell

Opinion

COMMENT:

Swimming in the sea has been a long-standing birthright for Aucklanders, but it is at risk. Beachgoers of all ages should not have to be told by Auckland Council that beaches are too dangerous to swim at. We should be able to rely on the council to ensure our beaches are safe for swimming.

I was horrified when Mayor Goff revealed last year that wastewater management had been underfunded and neglected in Auckland for at least 25 years. For me it signalled a significant problem on the horizon.

The council launched SafeSwim in November 2017 using a predictive computer model to forecast sea water-quality and advise beachgoers on its website when pollution levels are too high for safe swimming. Water sample testing is subsequently done to validate the efficacy of the forecasts being used to post no-swim red alerts.

When the council adopted the Ministry for the Environment marine waters guidelines as the basis for SafeSwim, it meant that they had a real responsibility to stop pollutants entering the stormwater network.

SafeSwim monitored 84 beaches in the Auckland region last summer, and no-swim red alerts effectively closed these beaches for an average 23 per cent of the time.

These test results are ugly and what they have told us is that we have a serious seawater pollution problem.

I have been impressed by the level of testing that SafeSwim has done at the worst affected beaches, to try to isolate pollution sources. It has established that pollutants are entering the storm-water network from a variety of sources.

The responses from councillors have been tepid and comments from Mayor Goff that Auckland's beaches will be cleaned up in 10 years rather than the 30 years it was originally going to take are almost unbelievable. Why is the council not taking the proven levels of seawater pollution seriously?

I accept that it is not an easy fix, but it is manageable and it must be made to happen if Auckland beaches are to meet the SafeSwim goal of being swimmable for 90 per cent of the time.

Aucklanders need to make it clear to the council that our beaches need to be cleaned up as a matter of urgency.

I believe there are a number of critical issues that need to be carefully worked through. The 2018 targeted rate will generate $452 million over 10 years for water quality improvement. But 80 per cent of the $452m has been allocated to assist funding the Western Isthmus stormwater project.

It leaves only $9m a year for the rest of Auckland, and to stop pollutants entering the 6000km stormwater drainage network. Nine million dollars annually is simply not enough to catch up on the 25 years of underfunding.

I have asked council representatives on a number of occasions what the total cost is to clean up the stormwater network. It is a real concern that the council does not know.
The council, together with Watercare, needs an integrated strategy and unified reporting if they are to get on top of the problems sooner rather than later.

Watercare is the council-controlled organisation responsible for managing Auckland's waste water. It needs to ramp up its sewer-relining and replacement project, to stop sewage leaking into stormwater drains. The council's Healthy Waters and its SafeSwim group will need more resources, particularly compliance teams on the streets working to stop pollutants entering the stormwater network, if the pollution problems are to be resolved within 10 years.

The council should not continue to assume it can take 10 years to stop pollution being discharged to our beaches, particularly at the times they significantly exceed the no-swim red-alert trigger. Nor should they expect thousands of Aucklanders and visitors to just live with high numbers of red alerts. It's time for the council to make this a high priority — stop the storm-water discharges inside 10 years, or clean sea is indeed just a pipe dream for Aucklanders.

• Alton Jamieson is a retired company director and a member of the CleanSwim Auckland leadership group that represents many sea swimmers across Auckland.