Drinking water safe despite tank’s PCBs
The Department of Health announced Saturday that polychlorinated biphenyls are contained in the interior and exterior walls of a Princeville drinking water system tank on Kauai, but recent intense and regular tests show the drinking water is safe and contains no PCBs.
The source of the PCBs remains unclear, the department said.
The EPA says PCBs have been shown to cause cancer in animals as well as serious noncancer health effects in humans.
Scrapings of the tank’s inner and exterior walls were confirmed Thursday to contain PCBs. And caulking used on the tank’s exterior wall might also contain PCBs and could be a possible source, the Health Department said.
The Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of PCBs in 1979, but they might be present in many products manufactured before the ban. The tank was built in 1971.
In December the Health Department found, during routine testing, trace amounts of a PCB, and discovered an oily sheen containing PCBs on the surface of the water in the tank that serves a population of 2,200 people on Kauai’s North Shore.
Owner Princeville Utilities Co. Inc. is taking the tank out of service and will use three temporary tanks while it cleans it.
PUCI collected samples, but PCBs were not detected where water exits at the bottom of the tank, nor at two wellheads that supply the tank, the Health Department said.
PUCI is testing once a week at several different points, and the Health Department monitors the water twice a month.
Pedestrian dies after being hit by car in Hilo
A 53-year-old woman died Saturday night after she was hit by a car near a Hawaii Belt Road crosswalk in Hilo, Hawaii County police said.
Police said the Hilo woman was on the mauka shoulder of the road near the intersection at Hawaii Belt Road and Pukihae Street when she was hit at about 9:40 p.m. by a 2005 Kia sedan being driven south.
The driver, a 37-year-old Volcano man, and his 3-year-old son were uninjured.
Fire crews took the woman to Hilo Medical Center, where she died at 11:58 p.m.
Police initiated a negligent-homicide investigation. It is unknown whether drugs, alcohol or excessive speed were factors.
The woman’s name was not released. This is the 10th traffic fatality on Hawaii island this year, compared with seven at this time last year.
Crews search for missing man in Keaau forest
Hawaii County rescue crews resumed a search Sunday morning for a 36-year-old man in a forested area in the Paradise Park area of Keaau, the Hawaii County Fire Department said.
Rescue crews and a helicopter were searching for the man, last seen at 10 a.m. Saturday at the end of 11th Avenue off Kaloli Drive.
The man’s father reported him missing Saturday at 5 p.m., and firefighters responded, searching the area until dark Saturday.
