Tauranga Harbour is being given a clean bill of health after a system failure at the Chapel Street wastewater plant caused an overflow of treated effluent.

Temporary health warning signs were erected on walkways near the plant on Friday advising the public of possible contamination.

Temporary health warnings were put in place following a small effluent overflow late last week.

Tauranga City Council pollution prevention officer Toby Barach says the signs, warning against contact with the water through swimming, fishing and taking shellfish, were urgently installed after a small overflow on Thursday.

'About three cubic metres of volume discharged late on Thursday; so in the scheme of things it's a really small amount.

'Basically it is effluent that has gone right through the treatment process at Chapel Street and prior to it being sent over to the Te Maunga wetlands.”

Toby says the contamination breach is a result of a glitch in the system at the plant during scheduled maintenance. He says the back-up level sensor failed, causing five minutes of treated effluent to overflow.

Council has today received results from the water samples, which show little cause for concern.

'We got our water sample results in and these show there are no problems and we will have the signs removed,” says Toby.

'The samples were taken on Friday and there is just a lag in time of getting the results through. The results show there is very little contamination in fact; but obviously we had the signs out as a precaution.”

The Chapel Street wastewater treatment plant provides treatment for domestic, commercial and industrial communities from the various catchments within the city.

Toby says the effects of treated effluent are very minor – and in this case none at all. The signs are being removed today.