Terrigal water quality audit

During the past decade, Terrigal Beach has been routinely graded as ‘Poor’ in the annual State of the Beaches report. This has led to considerable concern by local and state governments as well as beach goers, recreational swimmers, surfers, fishers and the broader community.

In response, stakeholders have been working towards solving the water quality issues:

• In January 2019, Central Coast Council commenced a water quality audit and expanded Beachwatch enterococci sampling from a single site (Terrigal Surf Club) to 10 sites, plus the major stormwater drain outlets discharging to Terrigal Beach and the Haven.
• In February 2019, the NSW Government committed $500,000 to Terrigal Beach and the Central Coast lagoons by undertaking a detailed, scientific audit and analysis of the microbial pollution sources.
• In April 2019, scientists from the then Department of Planning and Environment and Central Coast Council developed a detailed work program to expand council’s water quality audit.

Extensive field work has been done by the department and Central Coast Council in conjunction with University of Technology Sydney.

The research results have helped the council identify focus areas for remediation and they have commenced works in Terrigal Beach, the Haven and lagoon catchments to improve water quality.

The results are presented in Towards safer swimming – Terrigal Beach and Haven: Summary.

There are also 9 technical reports that describe the results of the Terrigal water quality audit research.