NO PANIC, ONLY FUN
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
There were many surfers in the water yesterday, including this one at Point Panic, as a south swell hit the shores of Hawaii. Surf along south-facing shores is expected to be 3 to 5 feet today. The current south swell will slowly lower through Monday, and a new northwest swell is expected to arrive by Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.
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Water samples look good at Waikiki surf spots
Water quality was good at nine of 10 Waikiki surf spots tested by the state Health Department on Tuesday, officials said yesterday after releasing the results.
Samples taken at the surface and 8 feet below the surface at Bamburas, Rockpiles, Kaisers, Fours, Populars, Canoes, Queens and Kapua Channel showed levels of the indicator bacteria enterococcus at or below 2.3 colony-forming units per sample. They also showed levels of 1 to 3 colony-forming units of another indicator bacteria, Clostridium perfringens.
The surface water at Publics had 10 colony-forming units of enterococcus, and Ala Moana Bowls had 53. The latter surf spot is near the outlet of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and Canal and is the only surf spot that still has a sign on shore warning of contaminated water, said Kurt Tsue, Health Department spokesman.
Signs were posted at the old heliport, where surfers park to access Ala Moana Bowls, on March 24, the first day of a 48 million-gallon sewage spill into the Ala Wai Canal.
Watson Okubo, head of the Department of Health's water quality monitoring, has decided to continue posting a water quality warning at Ala Moana Bowls because it is unknown what its normal bacterial count was before the sewage spill, Tsue said.