Waikiki Beach Polluted

Last Friday, March 24, the City and County of Honolulu started diverting sewage from a broken pipe into the Ala Wai Canal which drains directly to the ocean about 1 mile downstream. This action led to the bacterial contamination of Waikiki beach and Surf Spots such as Ala Moana Bowl,
now what I 'm calling Toilet Bowls. Allthough serious rains led to a ruptured pipe, the CCH didn't really do anything but the easiest and cheapest resolution which I believe is an unacceptable choice. No attempt was made to to add agents to the spill to reduce its scope. It is this type of reaction to an emergency and lack of a plan for such an event which leads people to mistrust their government. It should have been clear to someone in engineering with the CCH Department of Environmental services that such a thing could occur. A contigency plan other than polluting our public water ways to this extent should have been developed. THe OAhu SRF will be working with the Mayor's office to try to get an emergency action plan together for any future events.

This spill dumped about 50 million gallons of untreated sewage onto our coast. This amount is hard to actually understand it is so large. The only good that did come out of this is the Hawaii State Department of Health Clean Water Branch did do some serious monitoring. They also consulted with the Oahu SRF to advise on currents and surf spots to help better notify the public.

What we learned: there are no real solutions to leaky pipes as of now; the open ocean is believed to be a good solution in dealing with overwhelming pollution issues...

What we may try to do: Work on continuing to educate the public on how to take actions to prevent future atrocities.