Help sought to watch for water pollution
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
The Sierra Club's Hawai'i Chapter hopes to deploy a cadre of trained volunteers throughout Hawai'i to document threats to the environment, particularly ones that endanger the ocean.
The Blue Water Task Force is described as a rapid-response team that would investigate, photograph and prepare reports on incidents such as runoff from construction sites, illegal dumping, sewage leaks and other environmental problems.
Government agencies don't always have to the staff to chase down these events, said Gary Gill, a former deputy state health director and now development director with the Sierra Club.
The organization has worked closely with the Department of Health in setting up the program, and volunteers will be trained in environmental law, regulations and environmental management practices by employees and former employees of the department, said Laura Hokunani Edmunds, who will serve as the program's coordinator.
Task force members will have no official or law enforcement powers.
"They will just be citizens who have been trained to photograph incidents and to fill out inspection reports. The reports will be made available online and will be turned over to the Health Department," she said. "The Health Department doesn't have enough people to get out to the scene immediately much of the time."
Edmunds said she sees the program as a public-private partnership that helps the Health Department more easily enforce environmental laws. Gill agreed, saying: "It will not be productive if all we do is add an additional ream of paper to the desk of some poor, overworked government official."
Blue Water Task Force training is free. The first session is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow in Room 304 of the Richards Street YWCA in Honolulu. For more information, contact Edmunds at 561-8800 or by e-mail at laura.edmunds@hawaii.sierraclub.org. Or visit the Web site, www.hi.sierraclub.org /bluewater.
Training sessions will be held during the next two months on O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i, Kaua'i, Lana'i and Moloka'i.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
