On Wednesday, officials announced the beaches could reopen. But by Friday afternoon, the Land Air Water Aotearoa (LAWA) website had updated much of the south coast \u2014 along with most of the inner harbour, including Oriental Bay \u2014 to \u201cunsuitable for swimming\u201d. Large parts of the Miramar Peninsula were downgraded to \u201ccaution advised\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overnight rain appears to have tipped the balance. LAWA routinely warns against swimming for 48 hours after heavy rainfall due to stormwater contamination, which can include untreated wastewater. Wellingtonians know the drill by now: when it rains, the pipes complain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about the sudden reversal, Mayor Little stuck to his earlier talking points. \u201cConditions can change rapidly,\u201d he said. \u201cMy message has been to check the LAWA website before swimming.\u201d He added that the system is \u201cworking\u201d, noting that he remains \u201cperfectly healthy\u201d after his much\u2011publicised dip \u2014 a statement that will no doubt reassure the thousands who weren\u2019t planning to drink the seawater anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public health officials, however, remain firm: do not gather shellfish or kaimoana<\/strong> anywhere from \u014cwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay. Shellfish can stay contaminated for weeks after sewage exposure, long after the mayor\u2019s swim has faded from memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wellington Water confirmed at 2.30pm that screened wastewater continues to be discharged through the long outfall pipe. Crews at Moa Point are still assessing damage, managing odour, and stabilising network flows. Bulk solids have been removed, with final clean\u2011up underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beaches from \u014cwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay are open for shoreline swimming only. Tarakena Bay remains off\u2011limits due to its proximity to the short outfall pipe. Activities further offshore \u2014 surfing, diving, anything involving immersion \u2014 remain \u201cat your own risk\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents are again reminded to flush only the \u201cthree P\u2019s: pee, poo, and paper\u201d to help reduce unscreened waste entering the system during wet weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wellington\u2019s south coast has once again been slapped with \u201cunsafe for swimming\u201d warnings \u2014 a mere two days after Mayor Andrew Little waded into Lyall Bay to prove, with great confidence, that everything was fine. On Wednesday, officials announced the beaches could reopen. But by Friday afternoon, the Land Air Water Aotearoa (LAWA) website had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[458,483,399],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-10475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-andrew-little","9":"tag-sewage","10":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10477,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475\/revisions\/10477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10475"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wellington Water Update<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n