After a burst of heavy rainfall or a lengthy soak, the state often issues a brown-water advisory for various stretches of shoreline. Murky stormwater runoff spilling into the ocean may include drainage from overflowing cesspools and sewer systems as well as animal fecal matter, pesticides and other chemicals.
If testing finds levels of potentially harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, or parasites exceeding safety thresholds, the Department of Health also will post a high bacteria count — warning that swimming in areas with pollution in the water may touch off illness.
In Hawaii, vigilance in monitoring near-shore water quality and informing the public are crucial to protecting the health of beachgoers and marine life. So are stepped-up efforts to reduce the odds of health- threatening contaminants reaching the ocean in the first place.
A just-released water pollution report, “Safe for Swimming? Water Quality at Our Beaches,” by the national nonprofit Environment America Research & Policy Center, reviewed data of beach closures and advisories in 29 U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico, and found that 60% of nearly 4,525 tested sites had above-threshold levels of fecal contamination on at least one day in 2018.
The report defined “potentially unsafe levels” as bacteria at levels exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Beach Action Value threshold, which is set at roughly about 32 out of every 1,000 swimmers getting sick. Of 218 sites sampled in Hawaii, 90 of them — 41% — were flagged as potentially unsafe for swimming for at least one day last year, according to the report’s compilation of EPA data.
To fend off bacterial pollution in beach areas across the country, the report rightly calls for dramatic increases in spending for fixes to leaky and aging infrastructure as well as investing in innovation, such as permeable pavement, and adding features like rain barrels and rooftop gardens.
In Hawaii, cesspools are a glaring trouble spot.
With widespread use dating back to the plantation era, there are an estimated 90,000 in the islands — far more than any other state, with more than half located on Hawaii island. This crude hole-in-the-ground wastewater discharge method can contaminate groundwater, streams and ocean waters as well as beaches and coral reefs.
Hawaii legislation enacted in 2017 requires replacement of all cesspools by 2050 either by way of an upgrade, such as to a septic system, or connection to a sewer system. Despite a rolling out of incentives in recent years, such as a sizable tax credit, the switch is slow-going as many cesspool owners have complained that they cannot afford it.
The Health Department and state lawmakers should rework current incentives with more attractive carrots, as the cesspool inventory looms as a constant risk to the flow of clean water that residents and the state’s tourism industry depend on.
John Rumpler, co-author of the Environment America report, said: “Forty-seven years ago, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, one of its key goals was to make all of our waterways safe for swimming. … Clearly we’re not reaching that goal …”
The Health Department doesn’t track the incidence of waterborne illness among Hawaii swimmers; but the report estimated that each year there are 57 million cases nationwide.
While Hawaii needs to more aggressively tackle the problem, the matter of awareness got a boost last year with the revamping of the DOH’s Clean Water Branch website with more user-friendly features to alert the public of the water quality notifications, including brown-water advisories and warnings on high levels of enterococci bacteria. You can sign up for advisories at eha-cloud.doh.hawaii.gov/cwb/#!/landing.
