Posted on: Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Judge orders state to report polluted waters
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Environmental groups are cheering an order issued yesterday by U.S. District Judge David Ezra that requires the state to list polluted bodies of water with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
But state officials are concerned that it is a backward-looking order that will require them to correct old listings at the expense of doing the best job possible on a listing due in next April.
Both sides agree that the state needs to first identify those waterways in need of remediation before that work can properly begin.
Ezra, in an order from the bench, sided with the Hihiwai Stream Restoration Coalition and the Center for Biological Diversity in concluding that the state Department of Health and the EPA in its 1998 list of polluted streams failed to follow 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."
The state in 1998 listed 18 impaired streams and bays in the state.
In fact, the state and the EPA both knew there at least 50 other streams, rivers, bays and coastal areas that failed to meet minimum safe water standards, said Kapua Sproat, attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which filed the action on behalf of the two environmental groups.
Kaipo Faris, project coordinator with the Hihiwai group, which is named for an edible native freshwater snail, said waterways are of paramount importance to Hawai'i residents.
"For many local families, especially Hawaiians, our streams and coastal areas are like an icebox because they are an important source of food," Faris said.
Gary Gill, the state Department of Health's deputy director for the environment, said the state feels it lacked the scientific basis for designating more streams in violation of the Clean Water Act in 1998, and is now collecting the data to do a thorough job for the next assessment.
