It's claimed more than half of Sydney’s beaches are so unsafe swimmers are being exposed to dangerous bacteria.
High levels of raw sewage were found at 58 of 100 sites at some time in 2007.
But John Degnate from the Department of Climate Change and Environment says Sydney’s beaches only have a problem if there's been a huge amount of rain.
“This is a particularly unusual way they’ve taken of calculating whether a beach passes of fails.”
“Let me tell you, if it’s not raining, virtually all of our beaches are fabulous,” he said.
“Like any city in the world, when it rains heavily there’s issues.
“It takes a lot of rain to affect Sydney’s beaches,” he said.
“We have some of the best beaches in the world … some of the cleanest.”