State defends
its monitoring
of isle beachesA national group says
14 beaches here with known
pollutants are not being checked
State health officials are criticizing a national environmental group's claim that Hawaii's shoreline pollutant monitoring systems are inadequate.
"I believe Hawaii's beaches are safe," said Laurence Lau, the state Department of Health's deputy director for environmental health. "If we do discover sewage spills, we're going to post warnings."
The National Resources Defense Council has reported that 14 of Hawaii's beaches with known pollutants are not monitored by the department.
The number of unmonitored beaches was second only to New York, with 19.
Terry Teruya, the department's environmental health specialist, did not dispute the figure, but he said a comparison between the two states is unfair.
"They have no clue," he said. "To them, Waikiki Beach and a beach out in wherever" are the same.
"It would be nice if we could (monitor) every beach, all the time," he said.
But in an island state, he said, that task is almost impossible.
Nancy Stoner, director of the council's clean-water project, said the 14 unmonitored beaches all had known pollution sources.
"These beaches all need to be monitored at least once a week," she said, echoing the findings of the report. "I want to know that when I swim in the water, I'm not likely to get sick."
But Teruya said many of the beaches at issue are not a priority for the department, either because of their isolation or their low usage by swimmers.
The 14 unmonitored beaches include Diamond Head, Kuhio and Sunset on Oahu; Hilo Bay on the Big Island; and Olowalu and Airport beaches on Maui.
Twenty-five beaches in the islands are not monitored, according to the report, but 11 of those have no known pollution source.
The report also found that the number of days of warning-sign postings in Hawaii increased more than threefold from 2001 to 2002.
In 2001, Hawaii beaches were closed for 11 days. That is compared with 36 days in 2002, according to the report.
Teruya said the 36 posting days accounted for seven pollution incidents, including an eight-day posting at Keehi Lagoon and a six-day posting at Diamond Head Beach.
Beach testing goes back to the 1940s, when researchers realized that the sewage or runoff pollutants in the water needed to be monitored, Teruya said.
Hawaii's monitoring gauges test for multiple organisms -- rather than just one, as is standard practice -- and are stricter than those used on the mainland, he said.
