KEY POINTS:
A popular Dunedin beach has again been closed due to a sewage "plume", but this time next year the effluent won't cause a stink, Dunedin City Council says.
The council said today water tests showed high levels of harmful bacteria at St Kilda beach, and recommended against swimming, surfing or paddling until further notice.
Strong winds and sea currents are regularly blamed for sweeping a plume of sewage towards the beach, from a shoreline discharge at Lawyer's Head on the south coast of Otago Peninsula.
Wastewater and stormwater operations team leader Brian Turner said the council was extending the current discharge so that sewage was piped 1100m out to sea before being released.
The new outfall was costing $25 million, Mr Turner said, and would be completed by April 2008.
The council was also upgrading the city's main sewage treatment plant, so what came out of the pipe would be disinfected secondary wastewater.
"We're dealing with it two ways -- taking it further out so there's better mixing, and secondly improving the quality anyway."
The upgrades were part of a larger plan the council had been carrying out since 1991, Mr Turner said.
"And then from there we'll be looking to commence another strategy for the next 50 years. The work never ends."
Surf Lifesaving Otago district manager Phil Hudson said beach users were looking forward to the extension.
"With the way the winds and tides and currents clash, it just brings (the sewage) back towards the beach," Mr Hudson told NZPA.
"We totally understand that sewage has got to go somewhere, and worldwide it seems to go out to the ocean, and we're just pleased they're extending the pipeline."
At this time of year the only people who would have been in the water were "diehard surfers", who often ignored council warnings anyway.
Mr Hudson said he hadn't heard of anyone becoming ill after surfing during a sewage plume.
- NZPA
