Kailua Beach, with a sandy shoreline stretching roughly 2 miles along a turquoise- colored bay, is popular with visitors and residents alike.
But this beautiful beach faces multiple challenges: When there is heavy rain, sewers overflow through waterways into the ocean, prompting warnings of potential pathogens from the state Department of Health. Also, effluent from one of the city’s oldest wastewater plants empties into the ocean at Kailua Bay.
This becomes a problem when the plant fails to keep effluent from meeting Clean Water Act standards.
On May 5, the Health Department issued a news release warning ocean users to avoid waters near the Kailua Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant’s ocean outfall due to elevated levels of enterococcus bacteria. The advisory included a map of Kailua Bay waters from Mokapu Point at Marine Corps Base Hawaii to the Kailua boat ramp.
This occurred not only in recent weeks but in 2021, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to once again step in on issues spanning at least a decade.
Kailua residents who regularly visit the beach expressed concerns about what seems to be the growing frequency of these advisories.
“My whole paddling group has been talking about it,” said Eileen Robinson, a recreational paddler with Hui Pakolea. “We’re all frustrated about it and wish they would do something about it.”
In previous years, she said, practices would be canceled, but that’s no longer the case since the water advisories have been so commonplace.
The city is required under a state National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to monitor levels of enterococci — an indicator of fecal bacteria — in treated effluent at its wastewater plant. When permitted levels are over limits, the city must notify DOH, which in turn must alert the public.
Enterococci are bacteria that live in the intestinal tract of humans and animals, according to the EPA, but are also naturally present in plants, soil and sediments. Fecal material can harbor other harmful pathogens and sicken swimmers in the water.
DOH said the city documented bacteria exceedances in wastewater discharges on 13 different days from April 8 to May 4. The highest exceedances were reported April 28 and May 1, with levels over six times the limit.
On May 8, the city announced that tests had shown bacteria levels back within limits from May 5 to 7, and the advisory was lifted.
Previous exceedances
In January 2021, the Kailua wastewater treatment plant also discharged effluent with higher-than-allowed bacteria limits due to equipment failure — specifically, one of its biowater treatment units.
The EPA in December stepped in and ordered the plant to take steps to prevent this from happening again, including increased monitoring, a detailed evaluation of treatment units and a new operations manual to “optimize bacteria removal treatment.”
The EPA noted the Kailua plant also discharged effluent exceeding bacteria limits in June 2020 and April and December 2021.
Roger Babcock, director of the city’s Department of Environmental Services, said equipment from the January 2021 incident was fixed, and that the cause of the high bacteria levels this time is still under investigation.
“We’re working on it and continuing to study the situation,” he said. “In general, we comply with this and other permit requirements.”
The city tests samples of treated wastewater at the treatment plant as well as daily samples from the shoreline, and those closer to the beach did not show exceedances.
Shoreline samples, the city said, had been within limits since April 22, with the exception of four days when there was runoff from heavy rain. On those days, brown-water advisories were issued advising the public of possible pollutants.
The Kailua wastewater treatment plant, built in 1965, does not have a disinfection treatment process to kill bacteria such as enterococci, Babcock said, and is in the process of being upgraded. He hopes it can happen in the next two to three years, but the upgrade would require designs, permitting and then contract bids.
The EPA’s December order was added to a consent decree with the city issued in 2010 requiring upgrades to its entire wastewater collection sewer system to reduce sewage spills and to comply with the Clean Water Act.
This includes major upgrades to the two largest plants – Sand Island and Honouliuli — which must be completed by 2035.
Where’s the outfall?
Bill Hicks, Kailua Neighborhood Board chair, is concerned not only about why these incidents happen, but how the public could be better informed about them.
After the 2021 wastewater discharge exceeding bacterial limits, the board passed a resolution requesting formal notification of the investigation results, including what went wrong in operations and the notification process between Feb. 18 and March 1 of that year.
Hicks said that in 2021, eight days passed before the city notified the state and public of bacterial exceedances.
The city’s response was better this time, he acknowledged. But it was unclear whether this advisory covered just the area by the ocean outfall about a mile out or waters closer to the Kailua shoreline. The city referred to the outfall off Mokapu Peninsula in its advisory, while the state included most of the bay in its notice.
The city, at the request of DOH, posted more than 20 signs — from the beach access at Kaimalino Street to Kalama Beach and to the Kailua boat ramp. Some were placed on tree trunks and others on gates or beach access signs.
The signs were on letter- sized paper, with a map of the outfall and a QR code to DOH’s water advisory website.
Levani Lipton, chair of the Kailua Neighborhood Board’s waterways subcommittee, said she thinks few beachgoers actually saw the signs.
“Whether the signs are big enough or visible and are there enough signs posted, all need to be taken into consideration,” she said in an email. “My personal experience is that I paddled for the last two weeks and did not see any signs at Kailua Beach Park. I have a lot of people complaining to me that they don’t see the signs.”
DOH’s online alerts are useful, she said, but only if the public signs up for them.
There was also confusion from simultaneous advisories — one for brown water due to storm or stream runoff, for which no physical signs were posted, and bacteria exceedances, for which they were.
Both can affect public health, said Lipton, who believes signs should be posted either way.
Hicks suggested that lifeguards put up more visible “beach status” boards by their stands and at entrances to inform the public of water advisories. The status boards also could be used to inform the public of wave heights, currents and jellyfish.
Public information
Arleen Velasco of the Surfrider Foundation agreed the public needs to be better informed, particularly visitors unfamiliar with local beaches.
Velasco, co-coordinator of Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force, helps oversee the independent testing of popular Oahu beach sites by volunteers every other Sunday. The task force has consistently found waters at Kaimalino on the north end of Kailua Bay — closer to the outfall — to have high bacteria levels. Heavy rains this season also resulted in more than the usual brown-water advisories.
She is concerned about lack of public awareness, saying that despite the advisories, she often observes surfers and families with young children continue to enter the affected waters.
Many visitors also have no idea what is going on with waters at Kailua Bay, often advertised online as a “pristine shoreline” with “crystal-clear waters.”
Kailua Beach, after all, was named the No. 1 beach in 2019 by U.S. coastal expert Stephen Leatherman, known as Dr. Beach, based on criteria including sand and water quality.
“You go over the Pali, you see this spectacular view,” said Velasco. “You’re blown away by the beauty and then you look at the water quality, and it’s pathetic. It’s very concerning to me. I only see the trend going in the wrong direction.”
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Wastewater protocol
Testing
>> Under a state permit, the city is authorized to discharge up to 15.25 million gallons a day of wastewater from the Kailua Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (95 Kaneohe Bay Drive) to a deep ocean outfall about 5,000 feet from the shoreline, 105 feet deep.
>> The city must regularly test for enterococcus and report exceedances to the state Health Department, and warning signs must be posted.
Reporting
>> The state Health Department received BEACH Act funding from the EPA to set up a monitoring program for local beaches, including Kailua, and must notify the public when it is not safe to swim.
>> Advisories are issued when bacteria levels are higher than the threshold of 130 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters.
>> Brown-water advisories are also issued when heavy rain causes stormwater runoff to enter coastal waters.
