An islandwide brown water advisory for Oahu was issued by the state Department of Health Dec. 6 as a kona storm dumped a record 7.92 inches of rain on Honolulu, triggering nine sewage spills.
As of Wednesday, the advisory remained in effect.
Beach waters were visibly brown and murky around the island, notably off south-facing beaches at Diamond Head, Waikiki and Magic Island Bowls, where, nonetheless, surf cameras showed surfers paddling out in chocolate waters flowing from the Ala Wai Canal.
While the state Department of Health suspends its regular beach water quality testing during brown water advisories, the Surfrider Foundation keeps on testing.
On Dec. 12, Amy Kelley went to Waialae Beach Park in Kahala to collect water samples. She and other volunteers with the foundation’s Blue Water Task Force take samples at beaches around Oahu every two weeks, which the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory tests for enterococcus, a fecal-indicator bacteria.
Despite DOH’s advisory, “the water looked clear and clean, so I didn’t worry about wading in” to collect samples, the Waialae Iki resident said. “I was sure the tests would come back with below-threshold levels.”
Test results for Waialae, however, showed high levels of 173 enterococci per milliliter of water, exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health risk threshold of 130 Ent/mL.
Exceedances were also found at nearby Wailupe Beach Park (1,259 Ent/mL), Ala Moana District Park’s Magic Island Bowls (512 Ent/mL) and Magic Island Canoe Launch (1,842 Ent/mL), Chocolates (1,234 Ent/mL), Heeia Fishpond (1,664 Ent/mL), Kahaluu (2,603 Ent/mL), Kahaone Loop Pools (341 Ent/mL), Kaiaka Bay (5,247 Ent/mL), Kaimalino (1,112 Ent/mL), Kuliouou Stream (3,282 Ent/mL), South Kaneohe Bay (350 Ent/ mL) and Waiahole Beach Park (1,396 Ent/mL).
Due to the Honolulu Marathon, Kelley was unable to sample Blackpoint/Cromwells near Waialae on Dec. 12, but the site had high bacteria Nov. 28 (420 Ent/mL).
Because microscopic pathogens can lurk in blue, clear water and some people go in the water even if it’s murky and brown, Surfrider has been pressing the state to test beach waters when brown water advisories are in effect and to post warning signs on beaches, said Lauren Blickley, Surfrider’s Hawaii regional manager.
“It was really shocking and frustrating to look at the surf cam for Waikiki the first couple days after the storm and see people surfing,” Blickley said in a phone interview from her home on Kauai.
“DOH has an online notification system (via emails and on its website), but not everybody, and certainly not tourists, knows about it or thinks to check. You have to pair it with signs at the beach that people can see before they go in the water.”
In an email, Myron Honda, administrator for DOH’s Clean Water Branch, confirmed the state neither tests for bacteria nor posts signs on beaches during brown water advisories.
The branch does post signs at beaches impacted by sewage spills, as it did Dec. 7 at Wailupe Stream and Maunalua Bay near Niuki Circle in Aina Haina, which was canceled Monday.
It also posts signs on beaches under bacterial advisories, as required under the federal Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act.
One reason the branch doesn’t test brown water is that enterococci also occur naturally in Hawaii soils, Honda said.
“The test cannot tell us the source, whether it’s due to sewage or from the natural microbial flora in the area,” he said, “but when we do detect (enterococcus) at levels above the action level, we must assume the cause is sewage and inform the public.”
Limited resources also preclude posting signs for brown water advisories, particularly for the islandwide advisories that were issued for all the major islands Dec. 7, Honda said.
Finally, because DOH’s water quality tests can’t detect other health- threatening pollutants, such as pesticides and heavy metals, brown water advisories “primarily serve as a precautionary advisory,” he said.
That’s not enough to inform the public, according to Blickley, because “the current water quality data collected by the Department of Health are skewed toward dry conditions, (leaving it) unknown which locations experience pollution spikes during heavy rains.”
When the state Legislature reopens next month, she said Surfrider will seek passage of Senate Bill 350, which would require that DOH test the water and post signs at beaches during brown water advisories. Last session the bill passed the Senate but died after reaching a House conference committee.
There are also environmental justice issues Surfrider wants the bill to mitigate, Blickley said. “We need to improve public notification and public health awareness, particularly for members of communities with less online access who recreate and fish at beaches DOH does not regularly test.”
Surfrider is demanding that DOH reevaluate its Tier 1 top-priority beaches, which are tested weekly, to ensure its water quality monitoring efforts are not unfairly concentrated in tourist areas, she added.
Honda disagreed.
“Tier 1 beaches encompass the entire island and are frequented by both locals and tourists, despite the perception,” he said, noting Tier 1 includes Makaha, Pokai Bay, Maili, Nanakuli, Waimanalo, Haleiwa, Waimea Bay, Kualoa, Sandy Beach and Makapuu, in addition to Ala Moana, Waikiki and Hanauma Bay.
“This past rain event was extraordinary,” Honda said. “I know in some areas the water may look clear, but we still have a lot of areas where the water is not quite back to normal.”
Ultraviolet light from sunshine typically reduces the bacterial levels, he added, “so we need more sunny days.”
Surfrider advises staying out of the water for up to 72 hours after a big rainfall, especially near outflows from storm drains, streams and canals.
Kelley, the Waialae volunteer, said she’d be more careful learning of bacterial exceedances on the sunny, clear water day she sampled the water.
“I’m glad I didn’t have a cut in my skin when I waded in,” she said.
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Check ocean water quality
>> To view Surfrider Foundation water quality test results, visit hawaii. surfrider.org/ programs/bwtf.
>> To see statewide water quality advisories and sign up for notifications, go to eha-cloud.doh.hawaii.gov/cwb.
