Hawaii First Water

Study finds injection wells, agriculture harming Maui bays

November 2016;

HONOLULU (AP) – A team of University of Hawaii scientists has completed a study of nearshore ecosystems across Maui that shows the harmful impacts of discharged treated wastewater.

The findings were published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE earlier this month.

The scientists analyzed water and algae at six locations around Maui, including Kahului Bay, which is adjacent to Maui’s highest-volume sewage treatment plant. A study of the bay found high nutrient levels in marine surface waters near the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility and a “thick, fleshy mat” of colonial zoanthids, a coral-like organism.

For the rest of the article see this…

‘Ike Wai: Securing Hawai’i’s Water Future, supported by NSF EPSCoR

October (Editor Comment:  Although NSF granted the UH $20 Million for water research earlier this year, see link to see how the UH is beginning to formulate its water research plan and its video.  See the link here)

Hawai‘i depends exclusively on local water. The ‘Ike Wai project will provide data and models that address the grand challenge of water sustainability. A diverse workforce of data scientists and water researchers will work in concert with the community, government and business to inform decision makers with high-quality data and predictive capacity.  The project incorporates indigenous and local communities, and its robust, inclusive and diverse human capital pipeline of undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty will address water challenges at the academic and policy level.

Paddling championship goes forward at Keehi Lagoon, despite water quality concerns

August 2016, KEEHI LAGOON, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) –

(Editor Kobayashi Comment:  Stormwater pollution continues to be a problem on the islands which will not go away.  Fortunately the control of stormwater resources will continue to offer solutions to future freshwater scarcity problems on the islands.  If stormwater can be slowed and saved, both pollution and freshwater supply scarcity problems can be reduced.)

The Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association’s state championships are going forward this weekend at Keehi Lagoon, but at least five canoe clubs have decided not to participate because of ongoing water quality concerns.

Flooding from Tropical Storm Darby sent large debris and trash into Keehi Lagoon, putting an upcoming outrigger canoe championship in limbo.

Participants, meanwhile, are being told to stay in their canoe on race day and out of the water.

A Brown Water Advisory for Keehi Lagoon has been lifted, but health officials say bacteria levels in the lagoon remain high.

Despite the problems, association officials are trying to remain upbeat.

“The flags are up. People are out here practicing. The tents the food booths everything is getting set,” said Water Vierra, president of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association.

He added, “We’re encouraging all clubs to forgo the use of boat holders. They have the most exposure to the water.”

The problems at the lagoon started with Tropical Storm Darby, which sent debris and dirty run-off into the waterway popular among paddlers.

While much of the big debris has been cleared from the lagoon, bacteria levels at Keehi Lagoon are still high.

As of Friday afternoon, five Oahu canoe clubs have pulled out the race. They are: Outrigger Canoe Club, Hui Nalu O Hawaii Canoe Club, Lanikai Canoe Club, Na Keiki O Ka Mo’i Canoe Club and Manu O Ke Kai Canoe Club.

Still, Vierra said, some 3,000 paddlers are expected to come out for the competition. Typically, about 3,500 participate.

Paddlers practicing Friday used duct tape to cover open cuts on their arms and legs. And everyone was wearing slippers in and out of the water.

See the rest of the article here…

Researchers reveal cost-effective path to drought resiliency

July 2016

(Kobayashi Comment:  This intriguing Stanford study may offer an answer to Hawaii’s future freshwater shortages…  Imagine routing Hawaii’s torrents of stormwater into the ground aquifers instead of washing brown water pollution onto our beaches and recreation areas…)

Strained by drought in recent years, California desperately needs more resilient water supplies. An affordable solution that provides a wide range of benefits is within reach, according to a new Stanford study.

“We find that MAR is an effective and affordable way to balance local groundwater decisions with regional and statewide management,” said study co-author Debra Perrone, a postdoctoral scholar with Stanford’s Water in the West program.

Many local communities rely on statewide infrastructure to supplement their water supply. This water is costly and limited in supply, raising a need for cost-effective local storage options.

Managed aquifer recharge allows for local water storage, access and management to a much greater extent than large surface water reservoirs, which are often managed by state and federal entities. Although excess surface water can be limited in some regions of California, treated wastewater and urban stormwater offer sources for MAR that aren’t fully utilized by centralized surface water storage infrastructure.

MAR is particularly well suited to more populous and developed areas that can take advantage of large quantities of treated wastewater and stormwater runoff collected by extensive infrastructure for use in recharge. In more rural areas, MAR using excess surface water can still play an important role in replenishing groundwater basins and guarding against dry times.

“Every year, California lets 1 million acre-feet of treated wastewater flow to the ocean,” said co-author Melissa Rohde, previously a researcher with Water in the West. “Our research shows it would cost the state about $870 million to build the necessary MAR facilities to recover and store this water. That’s not a lot of money compared to the cost and energy required to transport water from large surface water projects or to desalinate ocean water.”

A water enigma

Groundwater supplies up to 60 percent of California’s water supply during dry years. Despite its crucial role in slaking the Golden State’s thirst, groundwater went largely unregulated until the 2014 passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Therefore, statewide data on groundwater management generally and managed aquifer recharge projects specifically has been sparse or proprietary, generally not shared publicly.

This lack of information was highlighted with the 2015 passage of California’s largest-ever water-related proposition — the $7.5 billion Proposition 1. The bond promises almost $3 billion for water storage projects. Without data on relative costs and benefits, state and local water managers are hard pressed to make informed decisions on MAR projects.

In addition to new funding opportunities, the 2014 law puts the burden on local agencies for sustainably managing groundwater. So, local communities have more reason than ever to bank water sustainably. Managed aquifer recharge allows agencies to do that in ways tailored to a community’s resources.

Perrone and Rohde set out to identify costs and benefits of MAR projects around the state by mining applications for general obligation bonds from ballot propositions. In these publicly available forms, the researchers identified proposed economic costs and anticipated MAR project benefits. Then, they surveyed the projects’ managers to compare initial estimates with actual costs, and to identify advantages and limitations.

Looking to the future

As a changing climate, growing population and other factors put increasing pressures on water supplies, California’s need for long-term resilience will only intensify, the study noted. Conservation will only go so far. Flexible water storage options that can address changing conditions are essential. Therefore, it is likely that more water agencies will adopt MAR as a local management tool.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University. The original item was written by Rob Jordan. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

  1. Perrone, Debra; & Merri Rohde, Melissa. Benefits and Economic Costs of Managed Aquifer Recharge in California. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, July 2016

Swimming safety: Newspaper analysis shows bacteria levels up, but (Big Island) beaches still within limits

July 2016
  • (Kobayashi Comments: I have elected include this in a freshwater news site because it touches on some issues which are also key to the freshwater issue.  According to the 2014 State of Hawaii Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report, the Big Island’s freshwater conditions are better than most of the other islands.  However fully a third of the streams on the island are listed as “impaired” which means one or more of their pollution measurements do not meet EPA standards and are being watched.
  • The good news is about 40% meet EPA standards for cleanliness while the remaining 30% are unobserved.  Similar to the problems cited in the beach article, sampling programs have been cut and collection is limited.  So now here is the beach article…)
By Nancy Cook Lauer West Hawaii Today ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com

KAILUA-KONA — Michael Kahookaulana connects a long green garden hose to a faucet behind the lifeguard stand at Laaloa Bay Magic Sands beach and rinses himself off before turning the hose on his dripping baby and bikini-clad wife.

A local and longtime surfer, Kahookaulana knows the importance of promptly removing the saltwater, sunblock residue and whatever else is lurking in the turquoise waters at one of the Big Island’s most popular beaches.

He also has a good idea — even without looking at the data provided by the state — which of the island’s beaches are cleanest, and when is the best time to avoid them.

“Here, there’s a lot of oil from suntan lotion,” he said Thursday. “On the Hamakua coast, you get river water mixed in and whatever it’s bringing down from the fields. … The quality of the water, you can really tell. I definitely know the water all around the island.”

So does Neil Mukai. The only state environmental health specialist on the island charged with water sampling, Mukai spends his workday driving his state truck beach-to-beach, surf-spot-to-surf-spot, dipping up water in his battered metal bucket.

Despite some short-term spikes in fecal bacteria, waters around the Big Island show levels well below those considered unsafe. But most of the average readings for enterococci — the primary measure of contamination used by the U.S. Environmental Management Agency — have been steadily increasing over the past 10 years.

In fact, average beach fecal bacteria levels have increased five-fold between 2006 and 2016 at key West Hawaii beaches and 134 percent on the Hilo side.

See the rest of the article here…

(Big Island’s) Pohakuloa Training Area told to replace cesspools

June 2016, By Graham MilldrumWest Hawaii Todaygmilldrum@westhawaiitoday.com

KAILUA-KONA — The Army is paying $100,000 for keeping eight large capacity cesspools open a decade after the EPA ordered the closure of all cesspools of that size.

And it could be fined more if it keeps the cesspools open passed certain deadlines.

In a consent agreement announced Tuesday, the EPA said the cesspools can handle waste from 20 or more people a day, have an open bottom and may have perforated sides. They are distinct from the ones used in homes, and the EPA ordered all such large capacity cesspools closed by April 5, 2005, as “untreated sanitary waste from cesspools can enter ground water and contaminate drinking water sources.”

The cesspools provide no treatment for the waste and allow nitrates and human fecal bacteria into groundwater, the agency wrote.

The agreement says there were 12 cesspools active after the required closure date: four at Wheeler Army Airfield/Schofield Barracks on Oahu, and six at Pohakuloa Training Area and two at Kilauea Military Camp on the Big Island. The Army closed the ones at Schofield before the agreement.

The EPA says cesspools are more widely used in Hawaii than any other state, and the EPA has closed about 1,100 of the large capacity cesspools statewide.

Under guidelines published by the EPA, a replacement wastewater system has to be designed by a professional engineer and installed by a licensed contractor.

The cesspools on PTA’s land are to be closed by Sept. 30.

See the rest of the article here…

Brown Water Advisory Issued for Maui

June 2016, MAUI (HawaiiNewsNow) –

The State Department of Health on Friday issued a Brown Water Advisory for a portion of Maui’s shoreline following heavy rains.

The public is urged to stay out of the water at Honokahua Bay and Honolua Bay.

Flood waters and storm runoff in the area could contain materials from overflowing cesspools, sewer manholes, pesticides and other harmful elements including dead animals and fecal matter.

Health officials warn, if the water is brown, stay out.

(HFW Comment: Rapid storm water movement  and resulting brown water pollution into the ocean is one issue that Hawaii will need to address in the future.  The issue has the potential to be a win-win for freshwater advocates by  resolving two key issues; pollution of the ocean and preservation of Hawaii’s freshwater supplies.  If storm water dispersion is slowed to allow it to percolate back into the ground, fertile soil will not be washed into the ocean and the water will potentially be cleared of many impurities while seeping though layers of rock and soil to the aquifers.)

Contaminated Water: When Should the Public Be Warned?

By Nathan Eagle; Civil Beat, 4 April 2016.

The state found high levels of bacteria in a Kauai stream, but posted no warnings because the waste is from animals. Surfrider Foundation says that’s a problem statewide.

State health officials are blaming the fecal waste of feral pigs, sheep, rats, birds and possibly a dozen land tortoises for polluting a stream that people frequent on the south shore of Kauai.

The Department of Health acknowledged in a long-awaited report last week that it has concerns about the public health issue at Waiopili Stream, but it won’t post warning signs about the extremely high levels of enterococcus detected in water surveys because no direct sources of human sewage could be identified.

The bacteria, a widely used indicator of fecal contamination, is found in animal and human intestines and can cause serious, even life-threatening diseases. Health officials maintain that when it’s in animal waste, it’s not nearly as dangerous to humans as their own sewage.

They have no plans to definitively determine whether the animals pose a significant risk of illness to humans.

The Surfrider Foundation has fought for years to have the department at least post warning signs when enterococcus levels exceed safe limits. The nonprofit organization, which independently tests water quality around Hawaii, contends it’s a statewide problem.

“It is irrelevant at very high concentrations whether that is human waste or animal waste; it is still a public health risk,” said Carl Berg, Surfrider’s Kauai chapter chair. The marine biologist and research scientist has been testing water quality on the Garden Isle for 20 years.

See the rest of the article and the Report here

The County of Maui is already in hot water over sewage in the ocean off West Maui…

April 2016; Maui Times, Anthony Pignataro

The County of Maui’s violation of the Clean Water Act by discharging millions of gallons of wastewater into injection wells in West Maui is widely known. The judge’s ruling came in 2014 , two years after environmental organizations filed suit, alleging that the injection wells were significantly harming coral reefs in the Lahaina area–most notably, at Honolua Bay and Kahekili Beach (Old Airport Beach). In fact, studies have shown that coral at Honolua has decreased by an astonishing 76 percent since 1995, while other research has shown that because of freshwater seeps just offshore of Kahekili, a great deal of wastewater floats to the surface at that beach, which is very popular with locals and tourists alike.

What hasn’t gotten so much attention is that the county also uses injection wells at its wastewater treatment facilities in Kahului and Kihei–and a new study  published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin  shows that the South Maui waste plume dwarfs anything found in West Maui.

See the rest of the article here…

 

Someone Is Going To Get Seriously Hurt’: Flooding leaves neighbors grappling with questions of responsibility

30 Sept 2015;
By Bret Yager West Hawaii Today byager@westhawaiitoday.com

Flooding that turned coffee fields into wastelands of rock this week has Kainaliu coffee farmers asking how the water can be managed in a way that doesn’t pit neighbor against neighbor.

When rain clouds parked over the Kona coffee belt and dumped up to three inches an hour on Thursday, Nasi Fernandez’s coffee orchard became a deep-cut gorge of mud and bare rock, coffee trees uprooted and buried, an acre and half of land stripped and rendered unusable. When the channel exited his property, it charged through Shawna Gunnarson’s farm, leaving trenches and boulder fields through her coffee trees. It filled her pastures with mud, flooded greenhouses and outbuildings, and ripped out fencing and irrigation.

“It was like a freight train,” she said. “Terrifying.”

Saturday, Gunnarson estimated the flood has cost her at least $20,000, not counting an acre of lost orchard and the labor it will take to dig out buried coffee trees so their roots don’t smother under the new layer of soil.

Gunnarson doesn’t blame the Fernandezs for the landslide of rock and flood debris any more than that family is able to pinpoint the source mauka of their own farm. But it begs the question a lot of folks along the road have been asking themselves over the past couple of days.

“How will development up mauka be managed in such a way that that it doesn’t affect the people down below?” asked Ruth Fernandez, standing at the edge of a muddy road with other farmers and neighbors Saturday.

For the rest of the story see…