Acid spill: Signs warning against swimming in Pandora Pond removed

Emergency crews in the Pandora industrial area during the chemical alert on the afternoon and evening of February 5. Photo / Paul Taylor

Warnings against swimming and other water activities in popular Napier recreation spot Pandora Point have been lifted a week after a chemical spill in the neighbouring industrial area.

A Napier City Council media release says warning signs advising people to stay out of the water have been removed.

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board has reviewed interim results from sampling undertaken following the acid spill from a Thames St site late on the afternoon of February 5, and the results of ongoing investigation.

"It is satisfied any danger to the public from the contamination caused by these incidents has passed," the statement said.

But it added there may be ongoing effects on shellfish in the estuary, and the Council reiterated general warnings that swimming and any other form of recreational activity "which brings you into contact with water" should be avoided for at least three days following a "rainfall event".

During the response to both incidents and in the days afterwards, water samples were collected from both the affected waterway and the Ahuriri estuary, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū.

More than 40,000 litres contaminated with hydrochloric acid had earlier been reported to have been removed during the emergency operation which closed the main route through the Pandora industrial district as fire crews and other councils and emergency staff worked to contain the spill and minimise the impacts.

Napier City and Hawke's Bay Regional Council staff were continuing to investigate the causes, and similar incidents, to ensure events "of this type" do not occur in the future.

There have been prosecutions relating to other incidents where unlawful discharges or overflows have impacted on the pond and the wider estuary.