Full vehicle access to the road around Lake Hood will be restored today although a public health warning on the lake remains.

People are still urged to adhere to the public health warning and avoid contact recreation with the lake.

Chief Executive Hamish Riach said water quality tests are starting to show a lower level of potentially toxic cyanobacteria.

“Since the numbers are lower than when the access was closed it makes sense to now open the two gates to the northern end of the lake so that people can drive right around the lake.

“These two gates specifically restricted access to the main public boat ramp and swimming beach.”

Gates to the south end of the road around Lake Hood remained open over the lake closure which still allowed for carparking, golf and paintball access.

The lake was closed in April when toxic cyanobacteria known to be harmful, Microcystis was detected, and there were two substantiated cases of people falling ill from lake exposure.

The New Zealand Water Ski Association was involved in discussions when the decision was made to prevent people from launching their watercraft on the water body.

Mr Riach said there was some speculation circulating in the community around the testing regime.

“The testing regime with regard to the public health warning is not administered by or controlled by Council.

“Environment Canterbury undertake routine water quality testing of contact recreation sites in Canterbury for public health purposes.

“I’m confident that Environment Canterbury is correctly following the testing regime for the Recreational Water Monitoring and Response Protocol for Planktonic Cyanobacteria in Canterbury and South Canterbury Fresh Water Recreation Sites 2024-25, in conjunction with the national protocol set by the Ministry for the Environment.

“People have asked why we don’t independently test, and the answer is that our test results would have no bearing on whether Health New Zealand would lift the health warning as they only rely on Environment Canterbury’s approved testing methodology.

“This includes following the alert level framework and visual inspections of several sites to inform which site the sample should be taken from, allowing for testing to occur in several locations.”

Health New Zealand stipulates that two consecutive tests with a result less than 0.5mm3/L of cyanobacteria biovolume must be achieved before Health New Zealand will consider lifting the health warning.

“It’s important to remember that we are not cyanobacteria experts, so we’re looking to others with more knowledge to guide us on our next steps to improve the water quality at the lake.

“I’m confident we’ve got the right people on board to help us deal with this situation in the future.”

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