To test or not to test.

That is the question before the state Legislature as it examines a bill requesting the state Health Department test ocean waters during brown water advisories to better protect public health.

The Senate’s Ways and Means Committee on Friday approved Senate Bill 2322, which requires continued testing during the advisories, with an appropriation of funds, clearing its way to the House for consideration.

Advocates, including the Surfrider Foundation, say this should be part of routine monitoring so that the public has accurate information needed to decide whether it is safe to surf, swim or play at a beach in Hawaii.

In earlier testimony, the Hawaii Department of Health said it does not have enough resources to do so and that, from a practical point of view, it’s not necessary.

Currently, the department’s Clean Water Branch conducts routine sampling statewide as part of a federally funded beach monitoring program. This involves weekly testing of 61 “Tier 1” beaches, which are considered heavily used, such as Ala Moana, Waikiki and Kailua.

Under current protocol, DOH issues brown water advisories after visual detection following heavy rain events, but does not actually sample or test waters at affected beaches.

Health officials said this is because years of historical data from 1999 to 2021 consistently show brown water contains higher than accepted levels of enterococci — an indicator of fecal material. Thus, when the water is visually brown, an advisory is issued.

“We know from the data that we have, that almost always when the water is brown that is going to be exceeded,” said Myron Honda, supervisor of monitoring for DOH’s clean water branch. “We’re taking this as a preemptive advisory, to notify the public preemptively.”

Surfrider says not testing is problematic because there is “virtually no data” to really describe the pollution levels and health risks during brown water events.

“When the water is brown at the beach, they suspend their testing and that’s the time when you want the data,” said Lauren Blickley, Surfrider’s Hawaii regional manager. “Yes I think a preemptive advisory is wonderful. Let’s not lose that, but you should still be collecting your data.”

Without testing, Surfrider said, there is no data to determine which locations experience pollution spikes during heavy rains that may need to be addressed.

“We don’t have ideas of where your chronically polluted areas are,” she said, “or what areas have the worst issues.”

Blickley is concerned this gap in data means the true condition of Hawaii’s coastal waters is inaccurately portrayed, and skewed toward what happens only during dry weather, with very little information during wet events — when enterococci levels are most likely elevated.

Surfrider has its own Blue Water Task Force, made up of volunteers who sample water at over 60 beaches on Kauai, Oahu and Maui, that are tested at a lab.

“By the Clean Water Branch’s own report, 99.7% of state’s coastal water comes back as clean,” she said. “This is extremely different from the results we are collecting as a volunteer organization.”

Surfrider’s data shows numerous areas in Hawaii are consistently polluted, including Chocolates at Haleiwa Beach Park and Kahaluu on Oahu.

In its most recent Hawaii Water Quality Report for 2023, Surfrider found 50% of water samples from seven sites on Oahu and Kauai exceeded state health standards. Three of these sites — all on Kauai — exceeded standards for every sample collected last year.

Mainly, this is because Surfrider samples whether the water is clear or brown, she said.

Surfrider also samples different locations, including several spots at Pokai Bay in West Oahu, which became a priority following community concerns. On Kauai, volunteers sample at stream mouths where families often play because DOH does not test water there.

Additionally, some brown water advisories are up for extended lengths of time — as was recently the case for the entire island of Maui for three weeks in January — without testing.

This leaves the public in the dark, particularly when levels at some beaches were OK based on testing by Surfrider’s volunteers.

The monitoring program is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act — or BEACH Act — that went into effect in 2000.

DOH receives about $310,000 annually to run the program and says it complies by notifying the public when levels exceed the threshold level, which the EPA set at 130 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water.

“The data isn’t going to say anything more than what we can see,” said Honda. “It’s either exceeding or not exceeding (the threshold). There’s no in-between.”

The EPA came up with that statistical threshold value, he said, and it’s either acceptable or not, with no varying degrees of illness risk.

The advisories are posted online, with maps, and are available to the public via an email notification system.

Signs are not physically posted at beaches during these brown water advisories, but health officials say they have ordered them and are working with counties to determine their placement.

The protocol for lifting a brown water advisory, said Honda, is generally three to four consecutive days of sunshine following visual confirmation the water is no longer brown.

If DOH were to test, it would take at least 24 hours to get results from the lab, he said. DOH receives no state funding for the program, which has not been identified in the executive budget as a priority for the department.

Additionally, DOH officials said they are limited in personnel. The program has three workers on Oahu, one on Maui, one on Kauai — and on Hawaii island, one in Hilo and one in Kona — to cover routine sampling and weekly testing 61 Tier 1 beaches.

There are also more than 100 “Tier 2” beaches, which are tested every other week or every other month.

In testimony submitted to the Ways and Means Committee Friday, state health officials said the measure would require additional annual funds from the EPA to implement. If EPA does not approve those additional funds, then DOH estimates it would need an additional $1.1 million a year to bring in nine additional personnel.

Surfrider disputed this, saying it is not asking DOH to do any sampling outside of regularly scheduled sites, which does not require additional personnel, nor appropriations.

Blickley said the group is simply asking the department to do what it is supposed to do, which is to test the water whether it is clear or brown as part of its routine monitoring.

If a worker is already at a beach site to conduct a visual, then why not get a sample, she queried.

The bill is supported by 23 organizations including Surfrider, the Hawaii Lifeguard Hui, Earthjustice, Sierra Club of Hawaii, Maui Tomorrow Foundation, and Friends of Hanauma Bay.

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‘Brown water’ testing bill

>> SB2322 in its latest version seeks to improve the state’s coastal water quality monitoring program by requiring DOH to test water during brown water advisories; makes an appropriation.

>> DOH says testing is not necessary to comply with the BEACH Act; Surfrider, more than 20 other nonprofits say testing would provide necessary data.

>> The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved the bill Friday.