Ala Wai regulars know water is not safe
Warning signs posted recently at the harbor have been stolen
The water in Ala Wai Boat Harbor is so clear at times that Joseph Meisinger can see all the way to the bottom.
But he is not deceived by looks alone. Meisinger, who sails his friend's 42-foot ketch moored in the harbor, would not swim in it.
"The people who all have boats in here know not to go in the water," he said.
The boat Meisinger sails is moored in the row closest to shore, where the water is usually the dirtiest. He said he would not have any problem going into the water in the row farthest from shore, where the water is clear even after a heavy rain.
That is where Bernard Morry's boat has been moored for the past five years.
"I go kayaking every day in this water," including in the Ala Wai Canal, Morry said, "but don't now because I'm afraid."
A team of Hawaii scientists is expected to take water samples from the Ala Wai Canal and nearby waters today. They are to test for the vibrio vulnificus bacteria, which is blamed for the death last week of a Honolulu man. The team of scientists tested waterways in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Morry said he has not touched his kayak since learning that Oliver Johnson contracted a deadly bacterial infection after falling into the harbor. Johnson, 34, a mortgage loan officer, died Thursday at the Queen's Medical Center.
Last week, Dr. Sarah Park, deputy chief of the state Department of Health's disease outbreak and control division, said water in the harbor "wasn't great" -- even before a broken 42-inch sewer main forced the city to dump 50 million gallons of untreated sewage into Ala Wai Canal.
But there are no permanent signs warning people to stay out of the harbor or canal. Permanent signs along the Ala Wai Canal warn people not to eat fish or shellfish from the canal. And all of them have been at least partially covered by vandals or graffiti.
The city posted temporary warning signs along the canal and shorelines where the canal water enters the ocean, including in the harbor, when the sewer force main broke two weeks ago, said Mark Matsunaga, city spokesman.
Meisinger remembers seeing a warning sign near his friend's sailboat last week, but the sign was not there recently.
"We have a constant problem with people stealing signs," Matsunaga said.
Les Vasconcellos Jr. has been cleaning boats in Ala Wai Boat Harbor since 1982. He said he does not need a warning sign to tell him when to stay out of the harbor.
"When it rains hard, we usually stay out of the water until it clears," he said.
Vasconcellos said he has not worked in the harbor after the city poured sewage into the canal.
He said he and his workers wear full wet suits when they enter the water to remove barnacles from the bottoms of boats and their propellers. Even with the wet suits, the skin around their necks, chins, feet and hands are exposed to the water. But he said he has never gotten an infection from working in Ala Wai Boat Harbor.
He rinses off after he gets out of the water and takes a good shower when he gets home.