Notes:
(1) Data shown in the graph has been collected over the summer period so spans two calendar years.
(2) The map shows 2006–2007 summer data only. The legend applies to both the map and the graph.
(3) Some councils did not sample sites in the 2006–2007 summer because they rotate their monitoring programmes (for example, Environment Waikato samples sites on alternate years) or were undertaking targeted water quality investigations that year (for example, Tasman District Council).
(4) Compliance with guidelines for coastal water is based on the ‘action’ threshold of 280 enterococci per 100 millilitres of water sampled (Ministry for the Environment and Ministry of Health, 2003).
Source: Data collected by regional, city, and district councils and collated by the Ministry for the Environment in 2007.
Text description of figure
Figure 11.6 shows the monitoring results of the 2006 – 2007 summer season for contact recreation safety. And the results for the four summer monitoring seasons 2003 – 2004, 2004 – 2005, 2005 – 2006 and 2006 – 2007 in table form.
The figure uses a colour guide to show the proportion of samples from each testing site that comply with guidelines for safe levels of enterococci for contact recreation (ie. swimming).
The 5 classes are:
- Not sampled in 2006 – 2007 or not sufficiently sampled
- 95 – 100% of samples comply (water quality is suitable for swimming almost all the time)
- 90 – 95% of samples comply
- 75 – 90% of samples comply
- less than 75% of samples comply (Water quality is often unsuitable for swimming)
The figure showing the results from the 2006 – 2007 summer season shows that the majority of sites monitored fall into class 2. Sites around Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and along the Southern coast are seen to have the most sites that fell into classes 3, 4 and 5. The figure also shows scattered sites in classes 3 or 4 around New Zealand’s coast that are not in main urban areas.
|
| 95 – 100% compliant | 90 – 95% compliant | 75 – 90% compliant | 0 – 75% compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 – 2004 | 65% | 19% | 14% | 2% |
| 2004-2005 | 77% | 15% | 8% | 1% |
| 2005-2006 | 70% | 17% | 11% | 2% |
| 2006 – 2007 | 80% | 13% | 5% | 1% |
Figure 11.6: Compliance of monitored coastal swimming spots with guidelines for contact recreation, 2003–2007
March 2021
© Ministry for the Environment