Microbiological water quality grades are reported as long term Microbiological Assessment Category (MAC) grades in accordance with The Ministry for the Environment & Ministry of Health 2003 Microbiological water quality guidelines for marine and freshwater recreational areas.
Coastal MAC grades are based on routine sampling over five recreational bathing periods, which run from the start of November to the end of March, and also for some sites during the winter period where there is significant year-round use. A minimum of 50 samples are required to assign a grade. “A” can be seen as excellent bathing water quality, while “D” is poor quality and potentially harmful, see these LAWA factsheets on coastal and freshwater recreation monitoring and faecal indicator bacteria for more information.
Arrows over the circles and next to MAC grades indicate change in levels from the previous season – i.e. a single up arrow means that this season’s grade is one level higher (worse) than last season’s grade.
Usage guide: Scroll/zoom on the map to find areas of interest, hover on site circles to see more information, and use the "Sampling season:" toggle in the top right of the map to compare grades based on "Summer" samples taken from the last week of October to the end of March, or grades for "Winter" samples taken outside of summer.
Usage guide: Click the table headers or arrows next to them to sort the data, holding the shift key allows sorting over multiple columns.
Use the tabs below to see action guideline breaches for Enterococci (>280 cfu/100mL) from routine surveillance monitoring. Click the table headers or arrows next to them to sort the data, holding the shift key allows sorting over multiple columns.
Overall shows the number of sites that breached guidelines broken down by those sites total number of breaches in the monitoring season.
Separate Whaitua tables list preceding rainfall (mm) and the number of follow up samples required before compliance with the surveillance guideline was met for each breach. Alert level breaches (>140 cfu/100mL) are also included and suffixed an asterisk (*) when they required follow-up samples to be taken.
Summer
| Total breaches per site | Kāpiti | Te Awarua-o-Porirua | Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Total no. sites | % of sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero (no breaches) | 6 | 3 | 15 | 24 | 38.7 |
| One | 7 | 5 | 13 | 25 | 40.3 |
| Two | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11.3 |
| Three | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6.5 |
| Four | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.2 |
| Total monitored sites: | 15 | 11 | 36 | 62 |
Winter
| Total breaches per site | Kāpiti | Te Awarua-o-Porirua | Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Total no. sites | % of sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero (no breaches) | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 50.0 |
| One | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 12.5 |
| Two | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 18.8 |
| Three | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12.5 |
| Four | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6.3 |
| Total monitored sites: | 2 | 7 | 7 | 16 |