Unfortunately, this week I looked at more detailed monitoring on www.lawa.org.nz (Land Air Water Aotearoa) - a joint initiative between councils and research bodies - and the latest E.coli stats show a lot of red.
Of the 20 samples taken this summer, seven have been red, indicating a serious problem, with another five orange.
LAWA rates swimming at the Town Bridge as "high risk" and two samples taken in March show "unacceptable" levels of E.coli.
Is that okay for Whanganui?
On a hot day, does it have to be the beach or a swimming pool for our kids and not our glorious river, right on the doorstep?
Guidelines say councils should put up signs to warn people when E.coli levels are at more than 550 per 100 millilitres, even potentially causing problems for stock drinking water at more than 1000 units. The highest sample in March was 7900!
Where does E.coli come from and what can we do about it?
The answers to these questions are complicated, but the simple start is that E.coli comes from poo - humans, birds, dogs and cows.
The first thing to do is not to swim in pretty much any New Zealand river for two days after heavy rain - too much run-off means too much E.coli risk.
The second is make a submission - and there are two options available.
The Ministry for the Environment is running a consultation process on whether you want swimmable rivers or are happy to settle for the proposed standard of "wadeable".
And Horizons Regional Council is doing their annual consultation, so there's a chance to influence their direction on matters related to this.
One proposal that has me puzzled in Horizons' Accelerate25 report is "land use intensification" - that is, more dairying.
They're even proposing a lower nitrogen standard in coastal areas.
The report quotes Canterbury as a positive example economically (which seems seriously out of touch given continued low payout predictions with dire implications for some farmers) but it studiously avoids the point made on the LAWA website that "water quality in Canterbury has been in decline as a result (of) agricultural intensification over the past couple of decades".
That's not the direction I want to see Horizons head, especially when statistics on dairy farm consents speak for themselves.
Only 59 per cent of dairy farms required to lodge a consent application did so by the deadline and of the 94 applications processed (all approved) 85 per cent of them were allowed to leach nitrogen at a higher rate than agreed in the One Plan.
Now, nitrogen and E.coli are not the same thing, but how does this approach help our rivers' health? And how is that fair on the 14 farmers who worked hard to apply on time and within the conditions?
I want swimmable rivers for my children and for us to avoid the mistakes made elsewhere with too many cows - that's my submission in a nutshell.
-Nicola Patrick has worked in the public, private and charitable sectors in Australia and New Zealand. Educated at Whanganui Girls' College, she has a science degree and is the mother of two boys.
