Shitcast

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, December 11th, 2012 - 10 comments
Categories: Conservation, water - Tags: , ,

It seems that we as a country are pondering a new innovation for Auckland:

Sea pollution: Computer to predict pollution

Auckland Council scientists are developing a computer model that will predict, for beach swimmers, the amount of sewage pollution on any given day.

At present, under the council’s summertime Safe Swim programme, water samples are collected once a week at some 60 beaches and analysed for their amounts of sewage-indicating bacteria.

If the enterococci levels are elevated, depending on how high they are, a second sample can be taken, or health warning signs can be erected.

The problem is that the laboratory testing can take several days to produce a result. Subsequent rain can overtake an earlier dry-weather sample by flushing pollution into streams and harbour water when the combined wastewater/stormwater system in parts of central Auckland overflows as intended.

A senior marine scientist at the council, Dr Jarrod Walker, is developing a computer model based on a council study of sewage pollution levels…

I wonder if they will incorporate the Shitcast with the regular weather forecast from Metservice.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not protesting the idea of forecasting pollution. I’m protesting the sad fact that it is necessary in 100% Pure NZ.

I think the government needs to take immediate action. I think John Key needs to find himself some different advisors to tell him it isn’t so. That will fix it.

10 comments on “Shitcast ”

  1. higherstandard 1

    What a useful service.

    • lprent 1.1

      Finishing the separation of a sewerage system from the storm water system would be a better service. But it appears to have stopped? So we have this instead?

      Interesting that they have this amount of information. It means that they know where Watercare is screwing up.

      • higherstandard 1.1.1

        Coliform counts have been going on in the Auckland region for a very long time.

        One would also think that with the increasing amounts of money Watercare is screwing out of the local population that, allowing for annual variations in weather events, the number of closures of beaches and lakes to swimming due to sewage should be decreasing over time.

        • lprent 1.1.1.1

          The combined water and sewerage costs at my apartment block (combined bill) have more than doubled since 1997. Much of that was for the upgrades to the treatment plants which was completed in 2005 is why the sewerage portion of the bill is now significantly higher.

          But the older parts of the pipe system (ie the 19th and early 20th century parts) that were combined were meant to have been separated by now.

          • higherstandard 1.1.1.1.1

            You’re lucky the combined water and sewage for my abode has more than doubled in the last 12 months.

            Makes you wonder where all the money has been going. Although I do acknowledge there has been very significant upgrades to the Albany plant and outflows off of the Northshore beaches over the last few years.

            • muzza 1.1.1.1.1.1

              Watercare, lost +/- $60m last financial year in interest rate swaps. Perhaps the rate movements will be favourable to them over the current financial year /sarc!

              • vto viped

                “Watercare, lost +/- $60m last financial year in interest rate swaps”

                *cough splutter* … what?

                What the f#@k does interest rate swapping have to do with water management? Oh, I’m sure it will be able to be justified by some compromised goon from within the system ……

                What this indicates is the reach of the financial and banking sector. They actively get themselves involved in every large scale operation known. It is their MO. Get in and get a chunk of the action.

                where is the sense? It is no wonder we never have enough money – the banks control the entire operation of pretty much every larger organisation. True.

  2. vto viped 2

    Just this morning walked much of the lower stretch of the Heathcote River in Chch. Bleeeaaarch !! Every manner of scum and plastic imagineable along with hidden drains dribbling their sick directly into the water. Past heinous chemical waste treatment places that reek of poison and acid.

    All a real shame because once above the estuary part of the river it widens and deepens into a claasic lowland NZ stream. If it was clean clear water it would an immense asset to the city.

    Lordy knows how that happens though. There are probably about 100,000 car tyres that get worn down and wash down the rivers each and every year alone.

  3. tc 3

    Was chatting to a medlab employee who ran the tests on samples from the sick people a few years ago who said Orakei basin and the inner eastern bays were some of the nastiest places in akl with sewage overflow only being fixed up in the last few years in the basin itself.

    Watercare (lead by neo lib wonder boy Mark Ford) is rumoured to have estimated anywhere up to a 5Bill underinvestment in the network as the Banks led council in particular demanded dividends rather than allow re-investment..

    Sth akl never had water rates till Rortneys supershity came along so it’s a fair question as to WTF is a wannabe world class city doing with it’s effluent being plunged into it’s waterways still in 2012.

    Then there’s the guesstimate charge for waste water. You could be collecting it all for all they know yet still getting charged. This is why they write the rules, they wouldn’t survive in a fair game.

  4. xtasy 4

    We have learned now what 100 % pure means, so I am not surprised about this happening.

    I knew long ago, that NZ is not as “clean” and “green” as many like to believe it is, but telling people the truth is not an easy task, and often not welcome.

    So I recently read that Auckland Council appears to have seen a need to pump more sewage out to sea now. It will all get diluted, for sure, but in a “developed” country I would have expected a bit smarter a solution.

    Measuring the bacteria is useful, but could not more be done to stop some pollution from the start?

    We have a long way to go yet, and I cannot see this being managed to be achieved under Key and NatACT.

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