Beaches now safe, but concerns linger over faecal contamination

Beaches have been re-opened after extremely high levels of faecal contamination were found in the River Derwent from an unknown source.

Sixteen-year-olds Elise De Witt, of Blackmans Bay, Billie Baker, of Margate, and Elise’s twin Cristina De Witt, of Blackmans Bay, at Blackmans Bay Beach after it reopened following its closure due to poor water quality. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

BLACKMANS Bay Beach has reopened and other Hobart beaches appear safe from closure after extremely high levels of faecal contamination were found in the River Derwent from an unknown source.

Seven of 18 testing sites failed water quality tests on Thursday and needed to be retested after high levels of faecal matter were recorded. Blackmans Bay water was found to be so bad it was immediately closed after initial testing.

Retests conducted across the seven sites on Friday, including beaches at Howrah, Bellerive, Sandy Bay and Blackmans Bay, showed all beaches recorded a pass mark – a score below the required 140 MPN [Most Probable Number] per 100ml.

Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter said the northern end of the beach had returned to good water quality and was now safe for swimming.

“We are removing the advisory signs against swimming and are delighted that the water quality has returned good results,” he said. “But the fact remains, there has been a major environmental incident here.”

Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter remains unhappy about the water quality at Blackmans Bay beach. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Cr Winter said the council conducted stormwater outflow tests on Thursday, returning good results. He said the council would extend its independent beach testing for the rest of the summer and publish the results as soon as possible.

“I understand that some people in the community will have lost confidence in the water quality at Blackmans Bay Beach,” he said.

One Kingborough resident frustrated with the recent beach closure at Blackmans Bay was Janene Hurd, who said the public deserved clearer indication about what was causing the water contamination.

“I’ve got young children who want to go to the beach and can only do so during the few months of the year that Tasmanians get warm weather,” she said.

“People need to know what exactly is polluting our waters.”

Environment Protection Authority director Wes Ford confirmed the EPA was investigating the possible causes for the elevated faecal coliforms.

Derwent Estuary Program chief executive Ursula Taylor said it was pleasing to see good re-test results across the board, but said it was still unclear what caused the high faecal readings.

“We’ll continue our weekly monitoring to find out what may have caused this,” she said.

“It’s possible, though, that there could be multiple sources that polluted the water and not just one sole cause.”