Heavy rain events in the early part of summer badly affected water quality at some of the State’s bayside beaches, according to the Environmental Protection Authority Victoria’s (EPA) review of its Beach Report.
Chief Environmental Scientist at EPA, Mark Taylor said Geelong’s Eastern Beach, normally one of its top performers, showed less than ‘Good’ water quality on 47 per cent of summer’s 90 days.
“Eastern Beach’s poorer than normal performance was due to flood water contamination but most recently the poorer water quality was caused by seagrass decomposing in the area,” Professor Taylor said.
“We’re pleased to say that situation has resolved itself and Eastern Beach’s normal high performance has returned.”
He said St Kilda, Elwood and Frankston were slightly improved but were rated less than ‘Good’ 53 per cent of the time.
Professor Taylor said the top performing beaches were Santa Casa, which was rated ‘Good’ on 87 per cent of the time, and Portsea at 84 per cent.
“Most beaches were ‘Good’ to ‘Fair’ most of the time, especially on the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas,” the Chief Environmental Scientist said.
“But stormwater pollution following higher than mean rainfall in October-November, and some heavy rain events in December 2022, resulted in more ‘Fair’ forecasts being issued this summer compared to 2021-2022.”
He said the EPA’s popular Beach Report and Yarra Watch reporting service, which this season opened earlier than usual in October, would be continuing through to June for the first time.
“Autumn will still give us some great beach weather and we’ll be continuing to provide twice daily water quality advisories at 36 Bay beaches and four popular swimming spots on the Yarra,” Professor Taylor said.
“So, it’s not quite time to put the bathers and sunscreen away.”
Further information on EPA’s Beach Report and Yarra Watch can be accessed at this PS News link.
