CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Beachgoers enjoyed a day at Kalama Beach in Kailua yesterday afternoon, one of the worst hit from sewage contamination problems in Oahu earlier this year.
|
|
Improved beachgoer warnings are urged
A national group seeks wider notice about water quality
Hawaii had almost twice as many days of warnings about beach water quality in 2005 as it had in 2004, a national environmental group said yesterday.
Hawaii and other coastal states need to not only increase beach water monitoring, but also track down and try to eliminate the sources of pollution, said the National Resources Defense Council in its annual "Testing the Waters" report on water quality.
Increased warnings in Hawaii in 2005 were almost entirely due to the state Health Department issuing "brown water advisories" during or after heavy rain, department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said yesterday.
IN 2005, HAWAII ...
» Took 2,274 water samples at 97 beaches.
» Found bacteria levels at higher-than-national standards 4 percent of the time but did not close any beaches. The state takes a series of re-samples and relies on other factors when deciding whether to close a beach.
» Received a $323,930 federal BEACH (Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health) grant.
Source: Testing the Waters 2006, National Resources Defense Council
|
Those advisories, which began in late 2004, warn residents that heavy rain could pollute nearshore waters with runoff from urban and rural areas, seepage from cesspools and overflow from sewage systems.
Although 4 percent of test samples in Hawaii exceeded state and EPA standards, there were no beach closures in 2005, the national study said. Hawaii has higher standards than the EPA but does not necessarily close a beach when its standards are exceeded, the study noted.
Hawaii needs to do more to inform the public about water quality, representatives of the Hawaii Sierra Club chapter, Hawaii's Thousand Friends and a Hawaii organizer for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group told the media yesterday at Queen's Surf Beach.
"Monitoring is a crucial step," said Melody Heidel, Blue Water Campaign coordinator for the Sierra Club. "People going to the beach need to be told what it means. A lot of people going to the beach don't know."
In March the city released 48 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai Canal after a Waikiki sewer line broke. Bacteria contamination closed some nearby Waikiki beaches for up to a week. That incident is not included in the national report, which only covers 2005.
"Advisories and press releases is a start," said Donna Wong, of Hawaii's Thousand Friends, "but it's not solving the issue" of pollution.
Her group and the Sierra Club have a lawsuit pending against the city for its lack of progress in improving the city sewer system.
There needs to be a 24-hour telephone number people can call for beach water-quality conditions, and more beaches should be monitored, Wong said.
The state Health Department has received the equipment for a water-quality hot line and is in the process of setting it up, Okubo said. The department also has upgraded its Web site information about beach closures since the March spill in the Ala Wai, she said.
Simultaneous with its study release yesterday, the National Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the EPA, alleging that the agency has not done enough to protect America's beachgoers from polluted water.
"A day at the beach should not turn into a night in the bathroom, or worse, in the hospital," Nancy Stoner, NRDC Clean Water Project director said in a statement. "There have been significant advances over the last two decades that we should be using to protect beachgoers, but the EPA is dragging its feet in implementing them."
Improvements could include quicker testing methods that yield results in four hours instead of 24 hours -- as is done in Hawaii, said Joan Rose, a water pollution expert at Michigan State University.
Rose also advocates targeted testing for disease-causing pathogens coming from sewage outfalls to know what risks are actually there. Hawaii and other states currently test for bacteria that indicate the possible presence of disease-causing agents, but does not test for the pathogens.
Still, Rose praised the EPA and states for increasing beach monitoring in recent years.
"I think it's a good news story. States are doing a better job," Rose said. But there is much more to do, she said.