Panel's water report fails to sway official
WAILUKU » A water filtration method used for a couple of contaminated wells on Maui meets federal safe drinking water standards and has also been in use on Oahu for the past 20 years, a panel of engineering experts has concluded.
But Maui Councilwoman Michelle Anderson said the panel has presented nothing new to persuade councilmembers to lift its ban on using the two Maui wells for drinking water.
Anderson, who pushed for the ban and denial of funding to treat the water, said the county should seek other options than to spend some $12 million to try to clean water out of contaminated wells.
She said the federal and state safe drinking water standards applied to the wells were established for adults but not for the safety of children, seniors and the physically weak.
The panel, holding a news conference yesterday, was organized by Mayor Alan Arakawa, who has criticized the ban passed by the Council on Sept. 15.
The Hamakuapoko wells contain the suspected carcinogen DBCP, or dibromochloropropane, a substance used to treat nematodes.
Arakawa noted that during drought conditions from 1999 to 2004, the two wells at Hamakuapoko were used to pump water to Upcountry areas and that wells on Oahu use the same granular activated carbon process to treat water containing DBCP.
His administration wants to use the 1.5 million gallons a day at the two wells treated and used on a regular basis.
"The County of Maui is not going out of its way to try to poison the public," Arakawa said. "This is the normal practice throughout the world."
Erwin Kawata, a panel member and the water quality director for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, said Oahu has wells that are similarly contaminated and has been using granular activated carbon to take out chemicals such as DBCP since 1986.
"We have found it to be a very reliable system," Kawata said.
The panel acknowledged drinking water was not tested for the presence of all chemicals, and did not know the effects of a cocktail of low-level contaminants upon human beings.
"There is always the unknown," said Stuart Yamada, the engineering program manager of the state Safe Drinking Water Branch.
"It comes down to public policy and what people ... are willing to pay for."
Arakawa said he would prefer not to use the contaminated wells, but the administration has to be practical about dealing with the water situation, especially in times of drought.
"It's a balancing act. That's basically the message we want to put forward today," Arakawa said.