Aerial view of Te Waikoropupū Reserve, showing locations sampled for E.coli by Friends of Golden Bay.
Water flows are generally northward (from bottom to top in the picture).
Annual average flows are 10 cubic metres / sec for the Main Spring and 3.3 cubic metres / sec for the Fish Spring area. Surface flows into the Reserve are typically 5% of the Fish Spring flow but that can rise considerably during heavy rain.
The groundwater itself appears to be free of E.coli, but at times the surface flow has been so polluted that even after dilution by the larger flows of Fish Springs, E.coli levels at the ‘below Fish Springs’ sample point have been far in excess of the safe limit for ‘recreational contact’.