KEY POINTS:
Council assures Aucklanders water is clean at eastern beachesby Jacqueline SmithSwimmers can enjoy a clean Waitangi Day dip at Auckland's eastern beaches as the water has been declared safe.
Power cuts in the eastern suburbs on Tuesday caused a spill of raw sewage affecting Okahu Bay and Mission Bay, and threatening Kohimarama and St Heliers.
Yesterday afternoon Auckland City Council announced water-quality tests showed the bacteria levels were low and warning signs advising people against swimming were removed.
The council said it was inviting residents to join in festivities and to make the most of Auckland's beaches and harbours today.
The Waitangi Day Festival at Okahu Bay kicks off with an official welcome at 9am.
Tuesday's power cut, caused by a transformer fault, affected the Orakei wastewater pumping station and meant sewage spilled into the Waitemata Harbour.
The power cut affected about 74,000 homes and businesses, stretching from Mt Wellington to Newmarket.
Power was then deliberately cut to St Heliers and other parts of the eastern suburbs at 12 noon on Wednesday at the request of Transpower, in the hope it would reduce pressure on its Penrose substation.
The substation's capacity had been heavily reduced when Tuesday's fault left a single transformer to carry the load.
Watercare said it had installed emergency generators at the Orakei pumpstation to ensure it could continue operating during outages.
