Council is starting work this week to repair the seawall between the pedestrian bridge and Bow Street. There is some confusion as we had previously been told the most urgent work was for the seawall between the bridge and the firestation where large chunks of the seawall have fallen off but in any event it sounds like there will be some work happening there for the next fortnight
This work is tide-dependent and will involve closing off one end of the walkway while pedestrians will be able to access it from the other end. This work will extend the life of the sea wall and allows for a new footpath and handrail to be installed next year. Council also says they’re in the initial stages of developing a plan for work on the southern side.
Coastcare Waikato started work at Wainamu Beach on Friday with a digger and bobcat clearing weeds and pushing up a small dune. They were getting ready to plant kōwhangatara this week - their last planting before summer hits. The expectation is that with native dune plants in place, the site will become more resilient to erosion from the sea.
Waikato Regional Council says that the long term poor rating for swimming water quality in the inlet near the Papahua walkbridge is based on data they’ve been collecting for the last 3 summers. This is a new initiative and in the future the data will be based on a rolling 5 year average. Last summer’s heavy rain will have lowered the average but beyond that it’s not clear if this has been a problem for any longer than the last 3 years..
Regional Council has been reminding us that they “always advocate for people not to swim in water for up to two days after heavy rain” when those poor water conditions could fall between the weekly tests.
Although they don’t have weekly testing in October the data they did collect didn’t show any problems with high counts of faecal indicator bacteria. This contradicts data shown by Watercare at a recent community meeting which showed very high test results on the 15th and 29th October, which may or may not be associated with the recent accidents where treated wastewater was released on the incoming tide.