November 2019
I have spoken to the Council about the contamination from a storm water outflow at Browns Bay beach. It has been an ongoing problem for weeks and the source of the contamination has yet to be found. The SafeSwim alerts are up on the Council website but let’s face it - who checks the SafeSwim website before they play at the beach?
It is clear that the signage at Browns Bay is totally inadequate and I’ll be speaking to the council on Monday to get more signs put up.
The broader picture is that all of our beaches are suffering contamination due to years of underinvestment in infrastructure leading to poor maintenance and non-compliant behaviour going unchecked. We need a national urban water strategy that sets beach water standards so that these issues can’t continue to be ignored. It also means we need to think about how to assist councils around the country to fund the fix up of ageing infrastructure.