Surfers sick of sea slop

Disgusted: Surfer Jamie Andrews developed an intense earache which lasted almost a week after surfing at Waitara.

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Water quality in Waitara is under the spotlight again as surfers claim the water has made them sick.

Veteran Waitara surfer Jamie Andrews told the Taranaki Daily News he developed an intense earache which lasted almost a week while New Plymouth surfer Lydia Walsh said she broke out in a rash immediately after she left the water.

The claims come as the Taranaki Regional Council considered a report clearing the water in Waitara's river and coastline as safe for swimming.

The monitoring report says Waitara's water consistently meets the guidelines for recreational use.

Waitara's water quality has been a hot topic of late as the town fights for a sewage pipeline connection with New Plymouth and an end to dumping treated sewage at sea.

Yesterday, Waitara surfers told the Taranaki Daily News the ocean surrounding their favourite break stinks "like fart" and they believe it is responsible for ear infections and rashes.

Mr Andrews said after a Waitara Bar Board Riders Club competition at the river mouth break he developed the worst earache he had ever experienced.

Mr Andrews, who has surfed the break for 22 years, wears earplugs to stop water getting in his ears when he surfs.

It took just one drop of seawater for him to get sick, he said.

"I hadn't been surfing in a week then went out in that comp and bang I got an earache," Mr Andrews said.

After three days in pain, Mr Andrews said he couldn't handle it any longer and had to visit the doctor.

"It's pussed out and still blocked and it has been since Saturday," he said.

Miss Walsh, who competed in the same contest, spotted a rash over her body immediately after leaving the water. The rash was only on the areas of her skin exposed to the water.

"It was just on my hands and legs, where the wetsuit wasn't covering."

She said she usually surfs at Fitzroy Beach and had never got a rash from the water at any other beach.

She said she wouldn't surf the Waitara river mouth again unless she had to for a competition.

But yesterday, TRC environment spokesman Gary Bedford said the council's monitoring showed the foreshore water met bathing requirements.

A full report detailing historical and current information on the state of the water quality on the Waitara river and the coastal environment was tabled at the TRC's policy and planning committee meeting.

The report says bathing beach bacteriological monitoring shows the foreshore is safe for recreational use.

"In the past year, 100 per cent of guidelines were met," said Mr Bedford.

Since 1990, TRC undertakes three annual monitoring programmes on the marine outfall and bathing beach on Waitara, and has made every report since 1980 available on the council website.

The Cawthron Institute has recently been engaged by TRC to review and report on their coastal ecological quality monitoring data.

"So there are 30, 40, 50 reports sitting for the public to see," said Mr Bedford. "We have to prove by independent review we are telling the truth."

- © Fairfax NZ News