Hutt River at Birchville
The Hutt River at Birchville is located at the northern end of the Hutt River Trail in Upper Hutt. It is publicly accessible from Akatarawa Road and is popular for swimming and dog walking.
This site is monitored as a part of Greater Wellington Regional Council's Recreational Water Quality Programme, which is specifically designed to inform the public about the suitability of various sites across the region for swimming and other recreational activities.
The safety of water for swimming is determined by measuring ‘faecal indicator bacteria’ (E. coli) which indicates the likely levels of pathogens in the water. Monitoring is conducted on a weekly basis over the summer months (December to March).
It is generally safe to swim at this site during dry weather. However the site is known to be affected by faecal contamination from rural and urban run-off following heavy or prolonged rainfall. We therefore advise people not to swim for at least two days after heavy rain.
The site can also be affected by cyanobacteria (also known as “toxic algae”) blooms during the summer. For the latest recreational water quality information, please go to the GWRC website, or check out the latest recreational water quality reports.
Some sites have telemetry monitoring systems in place that can provide up to the minute data. At this site the following live data measurements are available. Click on the data type for more information.
-
Flow
- Last 7 days
- Last 30 days
- Last 12 months
What is this graph showing me?