Sewage spill has officials closing several Honolulu beaches

Waikiki Beach and much of Oahu’s South Shore were placed off-limits Monday after more than 500,000 gallons of sewage, mixed with stormwater, spewed into the ocean from heavy rainfall.

Warning signs were expected to remain posted for two days.

“We want to make it clear it is dangerous,” said Honolulu Emergency Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright. “There is risk of infection. … So please stay out of the water for at least a couple of days or until we have the OK to go in.”

Honolulu city officials say the cause of the contamination from Waikiki to Kewalo Basin stemmed from the inability of a pump station to process sewage and stormwater.

Oahu rainfall totaled more than 3 inches in a 24-hour period, setting a record for the date.

Enright said city officials traced the flow of spilled sewage and stormwater as far as the Ewa side of the Kuhio Beach concrete groin, and warning signs were posted from the groin to Point Panic.

City Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said only one of two pumps was operating at the Keawe Street wastewater pumping station during the deluge, causing more than 500,000 gallons of sewage to overflow on the Waikiki side of Ala Moana Park into a lagoon and onto nearby Atkinson Drive.

The other pump at the sewage station was undergoing refurbishment.

The back-flow escaped through manholes at the intersection of Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard, entering storm drains leading to the ocean, the city said.

Outside of the Waikiki area, she said, witnesses saw people opening manhole covers and letting stormwater drain into sewage lines to relieve flooding. “That exacerbated the system, too,” she said. “It overwhelms it.”

Opening manhole covers is illegal. “It is a $32,000 fine,” Kahikina said.

City lifeguards Monday warned beachgoers to stay out of the water, and posted warning signs.

City officials said water samples were taken from ocean areas for testing and that the beach warnings were expected to remain in effect for a couple of days.

The stormwater combined with sewage back-flowed in the area of Ala Moana Beach and into the lagoon before 8 a.m. Monday.

One witness said he saw a small geyser shooting out of the middle of Ala Moana Boulevard near Fisherman’s Wharf on Monday morning as he rode the bus to work in Kakaako. He said water was gushing across the six-lane roadway and hitting the edge of the sidewalk curb.

When he got off the bus farther down Ala Moana Boulevard at Kamakee Street, “I was hit with this awful smell,” said the Marine Corps retiree, who declined to provide his name. “I looked down, and there was a sea of gray water with blue tampon applicators in the middle of the road and partially dissolved wipes flowing back into the culvert. The smell was fresh out of a toilet.”

He said the water wasn’t deep where he crossed the road and that he looked around at the high-rise condominiums under construction.

“I couldn’t help thinking of the irony,” he said. “We’re putting up massive condos, where the cheapest one is $1.5 million, and this sea of raw sewage is going past.”

He later went to Ala Moana Beach Park at lunchtime and found out the city had closed the park.

“Lifeguards were on bullhorns, calling out to people, saying, ‘You need to get out of the water. The park is closed,’” he said. “It was a nasty mess. They were hustling out the homeless, tourists.”

Several other areas on Oahu also experienced sewage overflow, including Kaneohe and Kalanianaole Highway in Aina Haina, and a treatment plant in Kailua, sending 4,950 gallons of raw wastewater into Nuupia Ponds on Monday morning.

One of the worst sewage spills on Oahu occurred in 2006 when an estimated 48 million gallons entered the Ala Wai Canal at Waikiki due to a line break.

Kahikina, the city’s Environmental Services director, said the 69-inch sewage line had never backed up and caused a spill until Monday.

She said temporary measures have been taken to avoid the same problem from occurring again.

“If the rain comes, we should not have another spill,” Kahikina said.

Staff writer Nanea Kalani contributed to this report.