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Proposed
saltwater pool rules
challenged

The Health Department's draft
ignores recommendations made to
control staph, a group says

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The state Health Department's draft of rules for saltwater pools ignores recommendations made by professors from the University of Hawaii-Manoa, a coalition charges.

The organization, which opposes restoration of the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium, said draft rules ignore the issue of staphylococcus, a type of bacteria that causes pus in boils and abscesses.

But Health Director Bruce Anderson said the concerns of the Kaimana Beach Coalition may still be addressed apart from the rules.

Six UH professors who were part of the Health Department's Advisory Committee made a number of recommendations that weren't followed, said Jim Bickerton, attorney for the Kaimana Beach Coalition.

A key recommendation is that staph be monitored, Bickerton said, noting also that Anderson has raised issues with staph bacteria at the natatorium for years.

But Anderson said he could require that the city monitor bacteria levels in the natatorium as a condition of getting its permit.

"We can add the additions to the permit even above the rules," Anderson said. "That seems reasonable under the circumstances."

Bickerton said he believes Anderson's deputy, Gary Gill, has been charged with handling the rules because of political motivations.

Gill and Anderson said the rules logically fall into Gill's duties as deputy in charge of the department's environmental health division.

Gill reiterated his position that there is no standard for staph that can be placed in the rules because there is no accepted method to test for it in salt water.

UH public health professor Roger Fujioka, researcher of the Water Resources Research Center and one of the rules consultants, said: "We can't set a standard because it hasn't been set by anyone else (in the world) and we don't have the data to set a standard."

"The problem of staph may materialize or may not," he said. "The only way you can determine that is to do it and monitor it and see if people get sick."

Gill said, however, that there was discussion on whether the department could require a pool owner to monitor staph levels, as suggested by Fujioka.

The committee chose not to put that in the recommendations after talking to state attorneys, he said. "We are not proposing it as a requirement because it is research, not regulation."

The draft rules will be the subject of a public hearing at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the Kinau Hale board room at 1250 Punchbowl St.