O'ahu beaches, streams spoiled by sewage spills
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Even as the drenching rains were finally slacking off and Hawai'i sunbeams were peeping through the clouds yesterday, public safety headaches increased.
Despite a warning sign at the Hawai'i Kai boat ramp, a kayaker took to the waters yesterday. Heavy rains Friday overwhelmed O'ahu's wastewater system, causing sewage to spill into streams and the ocean.
State and city officials issued a warning about beaches, streams and other waterways being polluted by sewage spills caused when the runoff from the storms overwhelmed O'ahu's wastewater system.
By noon, Laurence Lau, state deputy director for environmental health, said that so many calls had come in expressing concerns over the number of sewage overflows caused by heavy rains Friday, that serious thought was being given to calling for an islandwide shutdown for all waters.
"That would have been a first," said Lau, who added that after checking the data closely, the advisory was downgraded.
Still, his list, as well as a similar one issued by the City and County of Honolulu, covered a swath from the Wai'anae Coast to the North Shore to Windward O'ahu and included such noted locations, beaches and streams as Honolulu Harbor, the Ala Wai Canal, Kailua, Wailupe, Waimalu, Salt Lake, Palolo, Manoa, Nu'uanu, Kalihi, Enchanted Lake, Bellows and Waimanalo.
The joint advisory from the state Department of Health and state Civil Defense also warned the public to avoid standing water in neighborhoods where sewage overflowed from manholes and areas that use cesspools and septic tanks.
Although Lau said warning signs were being posted throughout the affected areas, in at least some instances the message wasn't getting through.
At the Hawai'i Kai boat ramp, which was on the list of places to avoid, Toshio Ota, 41, of Tokyo, watched her two small children swim and snorkel in the ocean less than 10 feet from a sign that read: "KEEP OUT — No Swimming, No Boating, No Fishing — Contaminated Water."
Ota, who is vacationing in Waikiki for a month, said she brought her children to the ocean at Hawai'i Kai because the waters there seemed calmer and she thought they would be safer.
Although she said she saw the sign, she wasn't sure what the word contaminated meant. When it was explained to her, Ota promptly hauled her children, ages 1 and 6, ashore.
Tests ordered
Results from water tests should be available tomorrow. Call the Clean Water Branch of the state Health Department at 586-4309 for information.
Lau said people should avoid waters in affected areas until the warning signs come down. The danger is that anyone coming in contact with human sewage could get ill. He said one major worry was a large sewage overflow that could have affected Waikiki Beach, the busiest beach in the state.
Check water status tomorrow
"My big concern was that I had heard that there was a big overflow from the Sand Island sewage treatment plant," he said. "Depending on which way the ocean currents and the winds are running, that could have been pushed right back to Waikiki.
"Had that happened, then I might be telling people to get out of the water at Waikiki."
However, Ed Gomes, on-scene coordinator for the Health Department's Hazard Evaluation Emergency Response team, said the Sand Island overflow was contained before any flow reached the ocean.
Gomes said water quality samples would be taken from all the affected sites and that the test results would take about 24 hours to complete. He said waters in and around the listed areas should be avoided for about three days.
"About all you can do, other than pouring Lysol into the ocean, is to just wait it out," he said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Gomes said O'ahu's sewage system was simply overwhelmed by the heavy rainfall Friday.
Kailua Beach was among sites both the state and city warned could be contaminated by sewage spills.
"You had more water coming than the system could handle," he said. "To me this was a unique situation that we haven't experienced before. This was not business as usual."
According to the National Weather Service, O'ahu's unusually heavy rains have passed over the island.
By Tuesday, it should be safe again to return to the water, said Gomes.
"Unless something drastic changes, that will be it," he said.
Gomes said water test results would be announced to the press tomorrow.
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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