Source of sewage spill pinpointed
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
It was a day gone fishing for Salt Lake resident Rob Reaume, who spent yesterday dangling lines in the water off the Sand Island bridge just east of the Ke'ehi boat harbor.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Reaume, who has fished the spot since he was a child, said he wouldn't be eating his catch because one of the largest sewage spills in recent years took place a few hundred yards up the road.
Repair crews on Sand Island work to fix a ruptured sewer line. The leak on Thursday caused 2 million gallons of raw sewage to spill, though it is unclear how much made it into the ocean.
"Who knows, they'll (the fish) probably have three eyes next year," Reaume said. "We're doing it (fishing) for the fun of it."
City officials said that the pipe that sprang the leak was found yesterday, 19 feet below ground, and that no sewage has spilled since Friday. It was not known yesterday how much made its way into the ocean.
The officials estimate that 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilled Thursday from a ruptured 66-inch pressurized main that feeds into the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The break was discovered at 9 a.m. at the Sand Island Recreation Area near the mouth of Honolulu Harbor. Because of the repair work, the state has closed the park until further notice. Repairs are expected to take at least a week.
The city has installed a temporary 10-inch bypass line that runs above ground and through the park.
State Health Department officials were monitoring the water near the spill for contamination and have posted warning signs from Point Panic at Kewalo Basin to Ke'ehi Lagoon.
Frank Doyle, city Environmental Services Director, said yesterday his division had boats in the water a few hundred yards offshore to monitor the direction that the sewage was moving.
Sewage, most of which is lighter than salt water, floats, which is why Doyle's men were dropping red bobbers into the water to watch the direction of the surface current. Doyle said since Friday the majority of the sewage had drifted out to sea to the west and did not affect Ala Moana or Waikiki Beach.
He said as a precaution, the state closed beaches from Sand Island to the channel to the West, and to Point Panic to the East.
Yesterday, more then a dozen workers erected a barrier of steel girders around a large ditch that they were digging in an effort to reach the ruptured pipe.
Doyle said city contract workers were working in eight-hour shifts, around the clock to fix the problem.
Thursday's spill was the largest at the Sand Island facility since March 2002 when a 36-inch sewer line near Ke'ehi Lagoon ruptured and spilled about 3 million gallons of raw sewage. The 2002 break was in a line from the Kamehameha Highway pump station to the treatment plant.
Meanwhile the city still has warning signs posted at O'ahu beaches in the wake of wastewater systems being overwhelmed by recent rainstorms. Signs are posted at Kane'ohe Bay, Kailua Beach Park, and Waimanalo and Bellows beaches on the Windward side, as well as Pearl Harbor and Poka'i Bay in Wai'anae.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
