111 Hawai'i waterways polluted, EPA study finds

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

A court-ordered review of Hawai'i's waters shows 111 polluted coastal waters and streams, a huge increase from a 1998 tally by the state Department of Health, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report released yesterday.

•	The revised list of polluted water bodies and the request for public comment may be found on the EPA's Web site.

But state health officials, saying the pollution does not threaten public health, contended that the revised list includes many waterways that were left off the 1998 list because they weren't severely polluted.

In September, U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued an order mandating the EPA's review of Hawai'i's 1998 list of polluted waters after the court found that the EPA's approval of 1998 list was flawed.

The revised list includes 58 waterways on O'ahu, 15 on Maui, 20 on the Big Island, two on Moloka'i and 16 on Kaua'i, with pollution in streams in urban and agricultural areas, coastal bays and estuaries, and harbors. The polluted waters show evidence of sediments, nutrients, bacteria and trash.

Kapua Sproat, attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which filed the action on behalf of environmental groups, said she welcomed the revised list.

"We're obviously pleased that the EPA is finally taking its responsibility of combating water pollution more seriously. The fact that the EPA came back with a revised list that had nearly 100 more waters to Hawai'i's 1998 list underscores the concerns that we raised in our lawsuit," Sproat said.

"I look at this as an exercise in raising public awareness of water pollution problems," said June Harrigan, manager of the environmental planning office for the Department of Health. "We'll be working with people from different areas to reduce pollution sources."

In addition to previously recognized pollution problems in water bodies such as the Ala Wai Canal, Honolulu Harbor, and Pearl Harbor, the revised list includes Hanauma Bay, Kuhio Beach and other swimming beaches.

"Hawai'i's water pollution problems are usually along shorelines and in middle-to-lower reaches of streams where silt and excess nutrients damage the environment," said Gary Gill, state deputy health director for the environment. "Reduced stream water flow, alien plants and animal species, and concrete channels also harm many of our streams."

Harrigan said people can still swim at popular beaches such as Hanauma Bay and Kuhio Beach without fear of contracting illness. She said there were nonthreatening levels of bacteria found at Kuhio Beach, while health officials found trash and sediments at Hanauma Bay.

She said sediments can hurt coral which need light to flourish, but don't pose a health risk.

"Those places are perfectly OK to swim," Harrigan said. "There's occasionally a high bacteria count, but that usually reflects a high amount of sources and it's not necessarily a public health problem."

Surveys of those areas showed they are free of human sewage that can cause gastronomical problems, and ear, eye and throat problems, Harrigan said.

"We don't have those outbreaks," Harrigan said. "I swim there myself."

Harrigan said the state Department of Health will continue to monitor the waterways and facilitate remedies such as community clean ups where necessary.

She said the addition of 92 waterways on the revised list was due to more stringent standards imposed by the court. Instead of listing only severely polluted waters, the list included "moderately polluted" waters also, Harrigan said.

In addition, the DOH said the available information in 1998 was inadequate to list more than 19 polluted waters in the state. But since 1998, the state has revised its water quality monitoring program and will issue a new list of polluted waters in October 2002 based on all available water quality information.

In 1998, the polluted waters were Hilo Bay on the Big Island; Nawiliwili Bay, Waimea Bay and Hanapepe Bay on Kaua'i; Kahului Bay, West Maui Coast-North and Kihei Coast on Maui; South Moloka'i Coast on Moloka'i; and Waimanalo Stream, Kapa'a Stream/Kawainui Marsh, Kawa Stream, Ala Wai Canal and Harbor, Honolulu Harbor and shore areas, Kewalo Basin, Wailua/Kaiaka Bays, Kahana Bay, Ke'ehi Lagoon, Pearl Harbor and Kane'ohe Bay.

Harrigan said health officials found Waimanalo, Kapa'a and Kawa streams the most polluted on O'ahu in 1998.

Alexis Strauss, the EPA's Pacific Southwest water division director, said the revised list will help the EPA and state Health Department "focus on specific polluted beaches and streams, and on how we can address causes of the pollution such as runoff from urban and agricultural areas."

In September, Ezra sided with the Hihiwai Stream Restoration Coalition and the Center for Biological Diversity in concluding that the Health Department and the EPA in its 1998 list of polluted streams failed to satisfy the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.

The act calls on states to identify waterways that violate water quality standards and to establish the amount of sediment or pollutant a waterway can handle without continuing to violate standards. This amount is called the "total maximum daily load" or TMDLs.

Earthjustice attorney Sproat said the legal action was filed on behalf of environmental groups that included fishermen, farmers and Hawaiians who subsist on the land.

"The waters are the lifeblood of our 'aina," Sproat said. "This is a tremendous victory, not only for them, but for everyone in Hawaii."

The EPA based the revised list on water quality data collected from 1993 to 1998 and on-site visits to nearly 100 water bodies in 1996-97. The EPA said it is seeking public comment on this revised list of polluted water bodies.