For the first time in the Trust's history we are finally able to measure potentially problematic faecal micro-organism levels in the Pūharakekenui River.

Our Water Quality Monitoring volunteers now measure micro-organism levels in about 10 sites throughout the river once a month. The development of simple, easy to use petri gels now means we can collect water samples for micro-organism, grow micro-organism colonies overnight and have data within 24hrs!

The standard faecal bacteria cultured is Escherichia coli (E. coli) which is found in humans, other mammals, and birds. E. coli appears as a small blue colony often with a gas bubble on our gel plates. It is used internationally as an indicator of other dangerous faecal micro-organism e.g. Gardia.

The first five months of 2026 show that E. coli counts can be high in several tributaries of our river and exceed National bottom line values in the NZ National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2020.