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Archives for May 2017

Bill to ban cesspools statewide awaits Governor’s signature

May 20, 2017

May 2017: HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –

A measure heading to the governor’s desk would ban Hawaii’s nearly 90,000 cesspools by the year 2050, a move that some say would slow progress in bolstering the affordable housing inventory.

The bill comes a year after Gov. David Ige banned newly-constructed cesspools in the state.

“Cesspools, on average, release 55 million gallons of untreated sewage a day into streams, oceans and nearby waterways,” said Marti Townsend, director of Sierra Club of Hawaii. “That’s an extreme amount of untreated raw sewage that people end up swimming in, fishing from and maybe even drinking.”

Health officials say untreated sewage can be linked to skin infections and illnesses like Leptospirosis and Hepatitis A.

“Public health and safety is on the line,” said state Rep. Chris Lee. “We want clean waters, we want clean beaches, and this is a step in that direction.”

The state is offering a $10,000 tax credit to homeowners who convert to septic tanks, aerobic systems, or sewer lines.

See the rest of the story…

 

Filed Under: Groundwater, Stormwater, Streams and Rivers, Water Contamination, Water Pollution

Hawaiian Coastal Plastic Cleanup By Young People

May 2, 2017

May 2017: Michaeal McBride :Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge as posted in National Geographic Water Blog.

(Editor’s Note:  Mahalo to the folks from Homer, Alaska who helped clean up the seacoast on the Big Island of Hawaii!)

Optimism versus pessimism, how do we find balance between the two when confronting the environmental challenges of today? The older generation has many opportunities to help young people to be optimistic about the future — by encouraging them to take action.  The sea offers us inspiration to act (it is la mere in French, our mother). In Hawaii, a small volunteer shoreline cleanup was facilitated by elders, then a group of determined and optimistic young people demonstrated clearly that the one thing we must not do today, is to do nothing.

We were a small group of volunteers; among us, three fun loving Alaskan girls, Tammy, Daisy and Molly. They chose to do this hard work rather than bask on the beach. They were visitors to the Island who got one look at this lovely curve of shore and felt compelled to act. We sought advice from our cheer-leader, resident-grandfather-of -12-carpenter, Robin Reyes who was working nearby.  He said though he respected and supported our work, the changing tides and winds will soon cover it with plastic garbage again. It appears that this mid-Pacific hook in the shoreline is acting as a collecting point of detritus from near and far. In spite of that, these hardworking members of the younger generation keep a sense of optimism about the future because they are doing the best they can with what is before them.

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Just getting to the cleanup site was an adventure in itself through the dense Polynesian jungle

The fact is that the world’s beaches from Arctic to Antarctic are in many places, or most places, literally paved with plastic detritus.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-oceans-clogged-by-millions-of-tons-of-plastic-trash/

Scientific American reports in this link that for every foot of shoreline around the world, there are the equivalent of 5 grocery bags of plastic debris, millions of tons of it adrift in the worlds rotating current gyres.

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The big stuff is obvious and sometimes removable, but all of it is constantly being broken up into smaller and smaller bits by UV sunlight and the surf. The only thing we must not do in the face of this growing disaster or others like it, is to think it is not our problem. Humanity must take a serious look at the amount of plastic that we are allowing to get into the ocean. We must nurture optimism in our own hearts and the hearts of others, with the belief  that anything we do for the common good really matters and does indeed make a difference.

It is shocking to see that this semi-isolated cliff -bracketed boulder beach on the north coast of the  Big Island is littered with a nasty assortment of plastic objects large and small. There were many tons of plastic and commercial fishing net debris in this small cove. Volunteer beach combers could only scratch the surface.

http://blog.oceanconservancy.org/2013/01/22/unfortunately-junk-beach-lives-up-to-its-name/

There are ugly snarls of commercial fishing trawl net, some sections of which might weigh a ton. Floating nets like these are especially notorious because they attract fish; from little guys to giants who get tangled in them, die, and attract more creatures to these death traps. In a piece-count of commercial Japanese fishing floats we realize that 200’ of beach yielded almost 200 styro-foam floats and scores more, big and small, in a variety of shapes and colors. Friends reported seeing an entire small car washing back and forth in the surf perhaps kept afloat by the four tires. South Point on the opposite side of the Island has seen a lot of debris from the Nuclear Reactor disaster site at Fukushima Japan. The remote Aleutians, and much of Alaska’s coast is littered with this same debris.  We wondered what dangers we might face from radiation dealing with these articles? This insidious risk is magnified by knowing that more than one cleaner of beach garbage has been swept away, gone forever with a single rogue wave, indeed, there was a fatality on a nearby island recently. Beach-combers beware !

For the rest of the article…

 

Filed Under: Water Contamination, Water Economics, Water Pollution

About Hawaii First Water

This blog focuses on shaping water strategies for the Hawaiian Islands.

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