BY OLIVIA DILLON
Hunter residents can be confident heading into summer, following the release of the 2020-21 State of the Beaches report.
The report was released by the NSW Government on Sunday and provides an overview of the water quality at 210 swimming locations monitored under the Beachwatch and Beachwatch partnership programs across the state.
This year’s report saw one hundred per cent of beaches in the Hunter region graded as either “Good” or “Very Good”, indicating a four per cent improvement on last year’s results.
The grade systems provide an assessment of the suitability of each swimming location for recreational purposes and are based on a combination of sanitary inspections and microbial assessments.
The “Very Good” rating is reserved for locations with excellent water quality and limited signs of pollution. Water in these locations is considered suitable for swimming almost all of the time. Ocean beaches rated as “Good” have generally good water quality but should be avoided for up to one day following heavy rainfall.
Environment Minister Matt Kean was pleased to see such good results across the state, with 179 of 210 locations in NSW given the top two grades.
“This is a good result given the wet weather conditions experienced in many coastal areas, including the wettest summer in NSW since 2012,” Mr Kean said.
“As we head into the summer swimming season, I encourage everyone to not only Slip, Slop, Slap and swim between the flags, but to be COVID-safe on our beaches this summer.”
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| Image: ABC News |
