Tauranga City Council has made significant investments to ensure that its customers have high quality drinking water. Council has upgraded both the Joyce Water Treatment Plant and the Oropi Water Treatment Plant to "state of the art" microfiltration plants.
This ensures that Tauranga's water supplies maintain their A grade rating from the Ministry of Health.
Giardia and Cryptosporidium are two high profile micro-organisms that may be present in the raw water. The water is filtered to remove these micro-organisms and treated with chlorine to keep the water safe after processing.
Reports
The following indicators are monitored regularly:
Test
|
MoH Guidelines
|
Explanation of Test
|
| pH |
Guideline Value 7.0-8.5 |
pH is a measure of the hydrogen ions in the water. pH is listed by the MoH as an aesthetic determinand (this means that it may affect the water’s taste, odour, colour clarity or general appearance) - it is not listed as a determinand of health significance. pH is measured to ensure effective disinfection with chlorine. |
| FAC |
More than 0.2 mg/L
Less than 5 mg/L |
FAC stands for Free Available Chlorine. This is measured to ensure there is sufficient chlorine in the water supply to kill any germs that may be present. |
| E.coli |
0 in 38-76 s/q
1 in 77-108 s/q
2 in 109-138 s/q
3 in 139-166 s/q
4 in 167-193 s/q
(s/q = samples/quarter) |
E. coli is a bacterium that the MoH uses as an indicator organism to assess the microbial quality of the drinking water. The MoH feels that if E. coli is present in the water faecal contamination has almost certainly occurred, so pathogens (bacteria that can make you sick) may be present in the water. |
Last Reviewed: 03/05/2012