Kapoho Wai Opea tide pools Champagne pond sewage

[hawaiideborah]

Front page headlines in today's (12/3/2012) Hawaii Tribune Herald:
"Kapoho Sewage Fix Rejected"
This is recommended reading for anyone who visits the Kapoho tide pools and/or Champagne Pond in Kapoho.

9 times since May 2012 the samples taken by the Department of Health from Wai Opea tidepools (aka Kapoho tide pools) have exceeded health guidelines. This is 9 times in the past 6 months. Yikes!
The article goes on to warn "anyone swimming in the area should cover up cuts or wounds and shower afterward. People with immune deficiencies should also be cautious." Yikes plenty!
Edited for my typos
Here is the link to read the entire article:
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections...ected.html

Here are some parts of the article that concern me as a frequent swimmer at Champagne Pond and at Wai Opae tide pools:

"Nearly three years after Hawaii County finished a study outlining potential treatment options, many homes in Kapoho Beach Lots and Kapoho Vacationland Estates remain on cesspools despite being adjacent to the Wai Opae tide pools and Champagne Pond".....

...."Concern over pollution of the popular swimming areas goes at least back to the 1980s, when a state Department of Health study found sewage seeping from porous lava tubes. New cesspools have since been banned, and DOH tests water in the swimming areas almost on a weekly basis.

While individual samples do occasionally exceed health guidelines (there have been nine since May), high concentrations have not been frequent enough for the state to close the areas or take additional action, said Watson Okubo, DOH’s monitoring and analysis section chief.
Still, the concern is there.
“It can be a potential health issue,” Okubo said.
“Some of them are pretty close to the ocean.”
As for the county, Beck said nothing is being done to pursue treatment options"....
......"For now, Watson said anyone swimming in the area should cover up cuts or wounds and shower afterward. People with immune deficiencies should also be cautious.
“Right now our tests indicate it’s not an immediate issue,” he said. “But it should be in the back of everyone’s minds that these houses are on cesspools.”

[Carey]

Although I have yet to totally comprehend cesspools here (no where that I have lived, even fairly rural areas, has allowed them, and the last rural ag area we lived in required upgrades to tertiary septic....but that was heavy aquatard clays...)

But there is also the fact that our county DOH does have a lower threshold than the EPA for exceedance, and the UV sunlight does have sanitizing effect... so... but still....

I do kinda get the idea that the hit of converting is high, but there are many ways to deal with that, where we last lived, compliance was required on title transfer, so the hit comes at the sale or transfer of the property, & it was up to the buyer & seller to determine who paid for the upgrade.... many areas that require converging to sewers have a long term option where the upgrade cost is spread over a long time (typically 10-20 yrs, so the hit is metered out)

But I do not see why it is so impossible in this county to even think of upgrading the sanitary system requirements.... it has happened though-out much of the developing world over the last century, and this county is not as lacking in resources for the upgrade as some areas that have upgraded their sanitary standards.

[Obie]

Carey

In the article it mentions that KKWA is requiring upgrades.That is on title transfer or anytime someone wants to hook up to the water system.Several have been converted this past year.

Hawaiideborah

Do you have immune deficiencies or open wounds ? If so ,don't swim.You also might want to stop by Long's and get a tide calender.Only swim at high tide and not after a heavy rain.

That's what those of us living here do.

Here are the latest test results.

http://emdweb.doh.hawaii.gov/CleanWaterB...ier=001142

http://emdweb.doh.hawaii.gov/CleanWaterB...ier=001145

Please note that the all of the high readings are all at Champagne pond.

Edit to add tests

[Carey]

The requirement is not county, but the private water service & is not a requirement to transfer title, only to receive water from that water service provider if a "new homeowner". If you do not want to receive water from them (either catchment or private water sourcing) you do not need to convert. I am sure that some - many may opt out of the water service rather than upgrade their sanitary system...so that option is not an "idiot proof" way to upgrade the sanitary system of an area...

[Seeb]

It amazes me that people here will protest every fringe Eco thing, then go swim in poop and not say a thing about it

[csgray]

It amazes me that people make huge assumptions about what people they do not even know, will or won't do. I am not sure how Seeb knows that the people who protest what he defines as "every fringe Eco thing" are the same people who swim in Champagne ponds or Wai Opae. When we lived in Kapoho, both in Kapoho Beach lots and in Vacationland, most of the people we saw swimming in Champagne ponds were winter visitors, Wai Opae got a mix of mostly visitors during the week and more locals during the weekends.

Some day, some winter visitor who is paying top dollar to rent a house that advertises easy access to Champagne ponds will get a horrible infection during a time period of poor test results, and their landlord will find themselves being sued for advertising use of the ponds, refusing to switch to septic, and not informing their guests the water is polluted when they have that information. The concept of informed consent is important in civil law, and vacation rentals that advertise and promote their places as valuable because of access to those areas for swimming are vulnerable to being found liable for damages if a visitor is harmed by following their advice on where to swim.

When we rented a place in Beach lots for 8 weeks, our landlady knew my husband was recovering from a life threatening staff infection that had almost killed him, and had destroyed his lymphatic system in one leg. She still not only did not warn us of the pollution in Champagne ponds, she recommended that we swim there for his health. If he had gotten an infection in the bad leg from that water, he probably would have died. She would have been liable for failure to inform us of dangers that she knew as a 30 year resident of the area. When we moved to Vacationland, our new landlady told us right away what the risks were, and how to minimize them.

I find it interesting that the more expensive gated community which serves hundreds of visitors every year in expensive fancy vacation rentals refuses to pay for septic systems, while the much more affordable Vacationland, with many more permanent residents living on fixed retirement incomes, is willing to create a way to switch over to septic systems.

Carol

[hawaiideborah]

Csgray, agree totally about unsuspecting vacation renters in Kapoho tide pools area. It is irresponsible for owners to not fully disclose. Especially now that it was the front page headlines. Can't really say they didn't know.
This sewage flow that was over Dept. of Health limits 9 times in last 6 months is factual and concerning. An open wound can be skeeter bites that scratched open, or just nicking yourself on the coral or walking on the lava right at the tide pools.

I do swim by the tide calendar which I have both in my truck and in my house. Most vacation renters have no idea about swimming in sewage risk waters only at high tide.

[Obie]

If you check the next time you are in Vacationland,there are signs that warn the unsuspecting.

Anytime you swim in or wade in water that is not disinfected,there is the risk of bacterial infection.

It even occurs far from civilization because the bears indeed do **** in the woods!!

[hawaiideborah]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Obie

If you check the next time you are in Vacationland,there are signs that warn the unsuspecting.

Anytime you swim in or wade in water that is not disinfected,there is the risk of bacterial infection.

It even occurs far from civilization because the bears indeed do **** in the woods!!

---

There are no signs by Kapoho tide pools.
This is about cess pools on the ocean leaking enough sewage for it to be harmful 9 times during the last 6 months.
Last I looked this was not about bears.

[Obie]

A link to the sign.It's at the lower right.It warns of bacterial infection.It warns people not to swim with an open cut.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraig...517392551/

The area that exceeded the limit was Champagne pond not the Waiopae tidepools.