From Stanwell Park down to Gerroa dozens of creeks and waterways flow out from the land to the sea, and it's not uncommon for pollutants to jump in for the ride.
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This week the Environment Protection Authority received reports of pollution at Bellambi Gully Creek and Collins Creek at Woonona. Officers inspected Bellambi on Monday morning and attributed it to storm water from heavy rains at the weekend, while Woonona was still under investigation.
Thankfully most beaches are generally safe and rated four stars by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, but authorities are keeping an eye on them all the same.
Data from Beachwatch on the NSWO&E website is used by local councils to determine whether a beach should be closed due to pollution, as seen across the coast on the weekend.
The service forecasts daily what the quality of major beaches would be, taking information from regular sampling of the dozens of waterways around the region, beaches and weather information.
"Storm water is the biggest factor impacting water quality of beaches and waterways during heavy rain activity," a Sydney Water spokesperson said, adding they do regular water quality testing across the region.
A Kiama Council spokesman said they had four major waterways that intermittently opened to the ocean, though they also had several "unnamed urban and catchment waterways" which discharged storm water and catchment run-off directly to the sea (for example, at Surf Beach, Kendalls Beach and Black Beach).
"Variables such as tides and local swell can determine which areas are more affected than others, this varies between storm events," he said.
"The majority of locations within Kiama Municipality have good and very good water quality outside of large rainfall events. There is a direct correlation between rainfall and inshore ocean water quality based on urban and catchment runoff."
Shellharbour City has 10 significant waterways (such as creeks at Marshal Mount and Tongarra, plus the Minamurra River).
They receive sampling data from Sydney Water weekly for Shellharbour and Warilla beaches and the entrance of Lake Illawarra, though council also has approximately 12 sites (including Lake Illawarra) which are tested by council officers once per quarter.
"Monitoring of water health is undertaken by physically sampling the water from the waterbody and testing it in a laboratory for Enterococci," a spokeswoman said.
"Council would close the beach if the Beachwatch data indicates that pollution is likely. In addition, if beach lifeguards observe ocean water as being polluted they will also consider closing the beach at that time."
This was in line with what Kiama and Wollongong.
A Wollongong City Council spokeswoman said their own staff on the ground carrying out conducted regular inspections of creeks and waterways, but they also relied on "support and information from community members".
She also said council's Lake Illawarra Coastal Management Program involved a significant water monitoring program which focused on the estuary health and recreational health of Lake Illawarra.
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