Wellington Water initially estimated trucks would transport sludge between Moa Point and the Southern Landfill for at least five weeks.

Warning signs are going back up in Owhiro Bay after sewage spiked to dangerous levels again

Now Wellington Water is changing tack at the south coast beach - part of the Taputeranga Marine Reserve - by telling people there is no immediate solution and to get used to the dangerous levels of sewage in the water.

Water sampling for the enterococci bacteria - found in faeces - peaked on January 8 when, at one testing site, 8600 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres of water were detected. Anything above 280 is deemed unsafe.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF Owhiro Bay resident Eugene Doyle pushed Wellington Water to release water-pollution readings. What they showed was a large sewage count.

That led to Wellington Water finding the apparent source of the issue - three homes where wastewater had been plumbed into stormwater.

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Signs that had warned people off going into the sea were taken down and the beach was effectively opened.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons says Wellington Water needs to be accountable for what is going on at Owhiro Bay.

But local man Eugene Doyle wasn't convinced and on Monday night got Wellington Water to send him updated counts. They showed that a point near the Owhiro Stream mouth peaked at 3900 - almost 14 times acceptable levels - on Saturday.

This was followed up by a call to Wellington Water on Tuesday morning.

"Wellington Water acknowledge the outlet is a health hazard, are looking to put signs up in that area and say that it just something we have to get used to because the stream and outlet will have extremely high readings/health risks for years to come and there is nothing they can do about it without significant extra funding," he told Stuff afterwards.

STUFF Idyllic Owhiro Bay, where the water is iffy.

Wellington Water had stopped daily readings as they considered the levels to be normal and no different to many Wellington waterways. This was despite acknowledging the levels of enterococci were hazardous to health, he said.

His claims were put to Wellington Water. Chief stormwater advisor Ben Fountain supplied a written statement saying it followed its own protocols when reopening the beach.

Contamination levels had returned to normal levels before it was reopened, he said.

Wellington Water sent Stuff water readings from January 20 to February 1. For 10 of those 13 days readings at the stream mouth were at unsafe levels.

"We acknowledge that our communication could have been better as removing the warning signs implies that the Owhiro Stream, that crosses the beach, is safe for swimming in," Fountain said.

"Owhiro Stream, like many urban waterways, has a long history of contamination and is regularly unsafe for swimming in.

Wellington Water was planning to return to the stream mouth to put another warning sign up, he said.

Wellington City councillor Fleur Fitzsimons, who is based near Owhiro Bay and has the public health portfolio, said the issue should not have come to this.

"We need a major overhaul in their approach and increased transparency about water quality."

Regional Public Health said that the most recent Owhiro Stream mouth sample results, in the absence of significant rainfall, were likely to indicate ongoing intermittent contamination. The general recommendation was that urban streams were often not suitable for recreational use.