Patea River at boat ramp, Patea

The survey site is situated some 45km downstream of the Patea Hydro Electric Plant (HEP) dam and 300 metres upstream of the river mouth. Flows in the lower river are regulated by the operation of the HEP station. There are consented treated wastewater discharges from dairy ponds in the catchment upstream of the site and the consented Patea Wastewater Treatment Plant discharge 0.7 km upstream of the boatramp.

Boating, fishing, and walking are the main recreational activities at this site. It is a popular boat launching site with a jetty.

Recreational bathing surveys over the last two summers (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) showed that 100% of samples met the freshwater microbiological water quality guidelines prepared by the Ministry of Environment in conjunction with the Ministry of Health (MfE, 2003) and did not exceed the ‘Action’ level (>550 E.coli cfu/100mls).

The State of the Environment technical report showing the freshwater recreational monitoring results for is available at

https://www.trc.govt.nz/environmental-monitoring-technical-reports/