Extremely Polluted Water In Hawaii....

General Discussion
21

It turns out that Oliver was a drunk. Could have been drunk at the time of his “slippage” into the Ala Wai. He was a 34-year old that suffered from “chronic alcoholic liver disease”, which you get (at the age) by heavy drinking and it also contributes to the flesh-eating infection’s ability to take hold. So…yes, it’s a tragic story. The ensuing legal recourse will be interesting to observe, I’m sure both sides will put up a solid fight.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/NEWS01/604080336

As far as the sewage problem in Waikiki, it’s not the only place. Kailua to Waimanlo…it’s frikkin’ everywhere. Hawaii really needs to address it’s doo-doo problem. I say put the rail project on hold and fix THIS problem first.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/NEWS01/604080334/1001

22

old song

“I have seen adventures in paradise”

brings glowing memories

of beauty

idylic scenes

perfect waves

sunsets

sunrises…

and coincidental for others

sometimes only a few feet away

horrors beyond belief

truely oliver’s was the latter

horror beyond the pale.

god bless his mortal soul

tourtured by bad lifestyle choices.

staying up late in waikiki

is a magnet for mayhem

haole guy?drunk?ATA BAR?

strike strike and strike

the ala wai ? if you need to hear it…

the last time it was a viable choice to swim ,or fish,or…

was some time back.like 30 years ago.

the bilge of the former swamp of waikiki.

by the way ,the classic land scam of the twentieth century

swamp>drainage ditch and land development

evolved to one of the more coveted residential areas

in the world… not a secret .

for going on a hundred years

do new yorkers swim in the east river?

or the hudson?

Hantz Hall did swim

in the rivers of new york city.

is the planet angry?

no ,

it is doing yhe best it can

under the circumstances.

Butch Van Artsdalen [sp sorry]

died at thirty nine

heavy drinking does not prolong life

a liver can take only so much.

autopsy’s aside

Oahu’sstatus

as the gathering place in hawaiian tradition,

in my awareness,

is in jeopardy…of becoming

the litigation island

the litigants over the unfortunate

sewage problem are lining up the

chess pieces at every bar in waikiki

memorializing fecum

past under the ala moana bridge

May the pumps dipping into the entrapped

debris in the Ala Wai yacht harbor

strike gold and oil and may the

waters from the mountains

finally find peace

as they spread out in the

spectacle of waikiki.

“Waikiki”

the george helm rendition

of the song can give me chills

just thinking about it

I wrote another verse

that hangs on my shop wall

this is an oppertunity

to write yet another chapter

in the saga of waikiki.

not every story is Idylic.

most of the good stories

are you really missed it stories

like you shoulda been here just before

you ever thought of coming.

God bless Waikiki

the Grand Mother of modern surfing

“Kuupuna Wahine o’ h’e’ nalu”…???

…ambrose…

"at dawn when daylight is streaming

I find myself dreaming

dreaming of the whispering

surf of waikiki

whispering

number threes

number threes

number threes

23

Read this and weep:

http://www.healthebay.org/news/2006/02_13_sewagesand/default.asp

I wonder how bad the sand is in Waikiki??? I bet REALLY bad. If the city refuses to have an independant 3rd party oversee the cleaning of the beach, you’ll then know there’s a cover up brewing.

24

unless you live here

I really don’t see the purpose of all this…

It’s a problem we locals wll have to deal with in our own ways

anyone making comments from the sidelines should try and remember that…

just pray that we can find a way to make it better…

25

The purpose is to shed light on the situation to all who love the ocean. The more people that are enlightened, the more an organized effort against corrupt city politics across the nation can be successful. If you aren’t part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. We have to unite and clean up our oceans!

26
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.- Margaret Mead


27
Quote:

unless you live here

I really don’t see the purpose of all this…

It’s a problem we locals wll have to deal with in our own ways

anyone making comments from the sidelines should try and remember that…

just pray that we can find a way to make it better…

???

Sounds like a lonely way to go. People in other places have been dealing with sudden pollution situations on various scales apparently a lot longer than people in Hawaii…every time it rains in Southern California the governments say to stay out of the water for at least 72 hours, and that goes up if rain events compromise waste treatment plants or there are sewer line breaks…Malibu is at the end of a creek that gets most of it’s water from a sweage treatment plant and every time the creek breaches the sand berm the toxic cocktail empties into the one break on earth with anything remotely like the fame of Waikiki.

28

do some research guys…

we’ve been having problems here for years at Waimanalo and Kailua beach and its still happening even though we’ve been fined by the EPA big time during the last administration which led to the sewer system and sewer fees…

Unfortunately tourists and the previous mayor seemed only interested in more coconut trees on Kuhio which had to be later pulled out and sunset/brunch on the beach funding that’s preventing the island infrastructure, roads, sewer, water from being up to date.

You know how many water main breaks we have out here?

The townies will atest that its weekly if not daily sometimes.

Yeh turning Oahu and Maui into one big party place for the non-residents and part-time residents is the cause for most of the neglect to other more basic matters. But if you want to build disneyland hawaii style you got to route the money for the facade and not the toilets.

Been here over 50 years, my ancesters over many centuries

still haven’t found any really good change achieved by people who don’t live here and call this place home versus people that do. Everything happening and that has happened to make this place the way it is is a direct result of outside interference. Like Blane said people coming here telling us how to do things cause we apparantly don’t know any better.

Believe me we do

I bet you’ll be hard pressed to find a “real local” who didn’t know better when they should go in the water and when they shouldn’t. It’s pretty much ocean common sense we all have it some times we’re just to lazy or selfish to listen to what it’s telling us.

I feel sorry for Mufi and the city…

All these wise crackers like to speak up after the fact.

Funny didn’t see any of them volunteering to help out the city crew when the pipe burst.

Oh yeah I forgot it’s that “it’s not my job”, “it’s all about me” crew that’s making all the stink now when they should’ve been getting in the stink trying anything possible not to feed the blowout into the near by ala wai…

But I bet everyone was hiding high and dry in their overpriced homes/condos during that torrential rain last week while a bunch of wet and frustrated workers were trying to solve the immediate problem on their hand.

Same thing going on about the dam thing on Kaui

bunch of arm chair quarterbacks saying this and saying that

what did they do to prevent it from bursting in the first place.

Oh yeah speaking of Kailua and Waimanalo beaches…

someone here volunteering to do some thing about those problems

or is this one event at Waikiki just the flavor of the moment…

Finally over on the west side where they dump all the islands crap anyway, the EPA has issued a statement saying that the poisonous gas emmisions from the Waimanalo Land Fill do not meeet EPA standards and the city going to get fined. Just like they got fined for the crap being dumped out to sea by the Ewa Sewage plant. Anyone wonder want that was doing to our water on the southwest side? The blessed tradewinds are our worst enemy cause it hides all the problems we have until they go away

Why isn’t all this other stuff being covered?

or does it need to make CNN before it counts.

Just think about it before you say all these things that’s all

Hopefully I’m speaking up here for the locals and if I’m not I apologize.

29
Quote:

Just think about it before you say all these things that’s all

I don’t recall anybody laughing about the problems occuring in Hawaii. Quite the contrary, surfers the world over seem to genuinely care about the place. Many of us outside Hawaii have dealt with similiar experiences where we live and that conceivably could mean experience with trying to mitigate the problems or find solutions, which could be shared. I’ve said it more than once across several other threads, but I’ll say it one more time and then be gone: marshalling the support of visitors to the islands, whose numbers dwarf the number of local residents, could be very effective leverage for meaningful change. People do care, and people do want to help, but they need an opportunity.

My best wishes for a safe return to normal waters, for us all…

30

[=1]

Quote:

[ 3]My best wishes for a safe return to normal waters, for us all[/]

Too late…

The nearshore waters off Oahu as a whole is a barren wasteland and has been for years due to polution and overfishing. You can dive the nearshore reefs in town and see pretty much nothing but rocks…[/]

31

the sea cucumber is the reigning organism in the sand cleansing dept.

time and tide

are on our side.

the alarmist

problem identification brigade

are ill equipt to effect the efficient cleansing

of the beloved ocean.

as the ambient salinity of the inshore waters

increases will it not redeem the quality of the water?

there is a balance beyond the control of mankind

a faith in this will indeed win out

over the I CAN FIX ITmentality.

Leave it alone and wait

can be a wise and noble

solution.There are times not to surf,

there are times not to eat reef fish

there are times to wear white sox

corrupt local politix ?

on the campagin trail?

part of whose solution?

put me down to unite with the sea cucumber

the one and only one

who never stops cleaning the sand.

bless em every one.

watch and wait.

…ambrose…

respectful distance from all the dangerous

facets of the ocean

natural and man-affected

god bless waikiki

32

“Leave it alone” and let nature deal with it is pretty good thinking except that unless you overturn the sand on the beach and expose it to sunlight, it’s gonna stay toxic for a long time and it’ll keep seeping right where the ocean meets it - meaning thousands of wading tourists are at risk. Think the hotels will alert them? Right.

The city will have to look at other options and they’d better do it F-A-S-T because peak season is almost upon us. I wonder if anynoe has been on the horn to AU to get barges of clean sand ready for transport? Gonna have to excavate the sand. How long? Using city workers, forever. Get the SEABEES involved and it’ll be fixed in a matter of weeks. BUT, politics will prevail and they’ll tell everyone that it’s safe the way it is. Unless a neutral 3rd party oversees things, it won’t be safe. They lie, lie, lie and have a history of lies. People, it’s time to get involved. Ditch the party hangovers and the “whatever” lifestyle and help us for a change. Grassroots efforts, when organized, can be very, very effective in bringing about change. Now… Can we get the laid-back, sun-worshipping, beach lifestyle locals off their collective *sses? It’s gonna be difficult but if you look into your hearts, the laid-back person can become an activist. it’s gonna take sincere people, including higher-ups in the medai and govt to join in. Risky for them as no one wants to stir the pot for job safety sake. How about the Hollywood activitist types that frequent here and even have houses here? There’s a start.

33

okay again do some research…

the sand on the beach at waikiki is ARTIFICIAL!

Waikiki was/is a swamp and wants to be a swamp that’s why the ala wai was build to drain off the water coming from the mountains into the ala wai yaht harbor and out to sea through the boat channel.

Anyone who’s been here long enough knows that just off Waikiki is a deep submarine canyon that sucks all the sand off Waikiki over time especially when there’s a big swell to suck the sand off the beach.

So the sand is trucked in all the time to make it look nice for the tourists. They even tractor comb the beaches at night to clean the butts and trash off it. But in a sense Waikiki is an artificial creation that needs replenishing every so often.

Like Ambrose said with the strong trades back this week the crap will get blown off shore to deep water and the system will attempt to heal itself with all its power.

In fact concerning the canal an environmental company was running a pilot withsome natural hawaiian plants that eats sewage and cleans the water. as well as providing a fish habitat. Ever heard of Talapia? Had many more plants been planted along the canal the sewage could’ve been retained in and mitigated in the canal with oxidizers and the plants…I’m sure they will be given the go ahead now to plant more akulikuli suculants although it’ll impact the canoe and paddling activities…

People and surfers knew better

we’ve had run off

and dirty water

and sharks

for eons.

Those selfish enough who couldn’t resist the temptation of uncrowded, normally crowded surf breaks deserve what befells them just like anyone on the mainland that paddles out into known polluted breaks after a big rainstorm.

With out some common sense you pay the price

unfortunately alot of spoiled yups and younger don’t seem to feel that they need to have any common sense

and just want to blame and stick it to “the man” when their selfishness creates problems for them.

Nowadays no matter what it’s always someone else’s fault never yours…

Over litigation led to that

we’ll heal

we’ll pay

we’ll change

that nature’s way

34

Seabees? Haha… They aren’t what they used to be.

Its a shame that so many people are getting sick and the prospect of losing tourist dollars by not informing the ignorant seems to borderline on a crimnal act.

The sewage infrastructure has always been substandard for those massive rains, the last time rains this heavy hit flooding and flashfloods were rampant but I believe the population was much much less then in the 80’s than it is now.

Its just a shame anyway you look at it, too much too soon on so many levels.

Sad.

35

My concerns are the longevity of these bacteria strains. The summer swells are just around the corner.

When the big ones hit they’re going to stir up the bottom all along the south coast and bring up whatever happens to be laying down there. They’ll also be bringing in things that normally head out to sea like the sewage that gets pumped out a couple of miles off of the south shore.

If you ever surfed the ala moana/waikiki area after a really large swell or a hurricane, you know what I’m talking about. The water smells bad and there’s a lot of “stuff” visible in the water.

Will this bacteria survive in the ocean? Is it going to be a problem in 2 months when the swells push it back in? Will it survive in the sand long enough to be a problem when the beaches get high surf, high tide surge and erode more than when the surf is small?

They just opened up Waikiki for fishing, I wonder what’s happened to the fish?

We grew up eating a lot of fish, shellfish, and limu that we caught right off the beach in Ewa. Today they say we shouldn’t eat the reef fish because of cigautera.

The ancients built huge ponds at the mouth of the streams and rivers. Modern man thinks these were just fish ponds, but I’m wondering if they knew something more about the negative effects of runoff and used these to ponds to catch things from the land before they went into the ocean. I know that they used to continually clean these pond of debris. Malama the aina, malama the kai. The knew how to live a sustainable existance, and flourished for over a thousand years.

Smart businessmen filled in the ponds to build homes, just like they did to our swamp lands. The swamp lands were once abundant rice and taro regions. Try partcipating in a “get the drift and bag it” clean up, you’d be surprised how much damage we’ve done to our near shore water.

For a real eye opener, go snorkleing at Wailea near the Grand Wailea Hotel and see what our reefs used to look like. You don’t have to go more than a few yards off the beach. Then go to Waikiki or just about anywhere on the south side of Oahu and see what we’ve done. You need to make sure your not color blind to really see the difference.

36

Yes, the aquaculture from mountain, to taro fields, to fish ponds was amazing. In that the cycle fed each other and in turn fed the people. My grandfather, Papa Henry, taught this to us as keiki and the simpleness in its complexity staggered my mind at an early age. It still does. Its so sad that the old ways are disappearing and I’m still sad that one who knew the old ways so well has passed on as well.

37

I don’t know how productive of a job of you are doing while making belittling statements like this :

Now… Can we get the laid-back, sun-worshipping, beach lifestyle locals off their collective *sses? It’s gonna be difficult but if you look into your hearts, the laid-back person can become an activist. it’s gonna take sincere people, including higher-ups in the medai and govt to join in. Risky for them as no one wants to stir the pot for job safety sake. How about the Hollywood activitist types that frequent here and even have houses here? There’s a start.

Really…Hollywood activists? Please. collective asses? sea cucumbers? suculants?

We’re talking over a million and a half gallons of raw sewage. That’s a lot of gallons. Better put the condoms on the canoe paddles.

38

At one time the beautiful white sand of Waikiki was shipped from our local beach here in California because of its unusual color and texture. All the shit and bacteria being dumped into the water are nutrients that will be consumed and converted into some type of biomass. Tropical coral reef ecosystems like Hawaii exist in low nutrient warm water. That is why the water is so clear. Very little nutrients in the water column. This is essential for coral reef ecosystems that live with zooxanthelate symbionts(algae). Increase the nutrient concentration you move the productivity from benthic critters(the corals and their symbionts) to the water column(too much plankton and wrong size) reducing the amount of light reaching the bottom. Net result is death of coral reefs. It’s a world wide problem. Who to blame? Hawaii is among the most beautiful places on the planet. Who would not want to live or visit there? Even the ancient Hawaiians came from somewhere else. Wish I had a solution. I live in California. Human Beings have been coming here for it’s abundance and beauty for at least 11,000 years. They’re still coming. We have the same crowding and pollution. Hope they don’t send anymore of our sand over there. We need it for our sand bars. Mike

39

I pray and hope things will get better soon. I know things will work itself out, for the land which we all walk upon is not ours, it is a gift. Even our own lives are gifts, and we (I know I’m guilty) screw that up. So how much easier it is to screw up something that is not ours . . .

But I place my trust in the One who made it all. Everything will work out. Just need to have faith.

Hawaii is small. I mean compared to big Texas and California or wild alaska. I saw this one time in one of the Americal Idols, they had a Hawaiian girl on there. Really smoking hot and her voice was volcanic rocking solid. I mean she had a good x infinity voice. Now I’m not one to watch much TV, but a rumor I heared was all of Hawaii voted for her kept her on there until the end. I dunno if she won it or not but it was an example of how Hawaii could galvanize and organize.

I saw that thread on the Kamehamehameha schools thread, and even tourists were saying Haoles for Hawaiians. Dudes do the same thing! If I were there I’d call everyone I know and tell them to call everyone they know and start flooding mail servers and crashing the computer systems because TMI. You got the coconut line, use it!!

Too much information, yo! sending letters to bust up Fed Ex, USPS, UPS, DHL because of so many letters. Tell the dudes in command and control command wing sucks ass and you want to kick their ass so the asses and donkeys in command wing will bust it and bust it fresh, smooth, hip, cool, funky, and right!

Hit here and post places where other swalockians can email or send snail mail. Get the electronic army on your side.

Then do the V for Vendetta trick, start up underground Boston Tea party esque row across the delaware not wait potamic river and capture a hessian for your playstation. Set an appointed day, and pass it around. Everyone knows.

Then on the appointed day, like ancients did when swells rose up and cap’n cook and his male homies would get lovestruck when the nakkid wahines so hot they make the water temp the way it is today, everyone stops what their doing, cuz the command wing is about to ruin. But instead of hitting the polluted welcome to Hotel California surf, you . . . march.

get any media ninja you know to contact other media ninjas to get them in on the action. million man and woman march will draw attention. Then the media on the mainland will cock their ears and wonder what the shaking da islands are doing, making swell come here so Californians can surf polluted welcome to Hotel California because of the category 9 and richter 8 action on.

On that day, everyone marches to command wing’s palaces and castles and demand for them to wake up.

Then the command wings will rue day they’d found they’d messed with the underground.

40

sand from australia?

aaaahh introduce new organisms to compete

with the already adapted organisms in the sand?

disrupt an already delicate ecosystem with

mitzi gaynor and busby berkley wannabe kamaainas?

…pulleeze…

excavate the sand?

yep Mr. I can fixits have fixed

stuff constantly with simple

short order cook solutions…

Thank you for the concern .

Rabble rousing soap box calls to action

on short sighted short notice solutions

that instigate goose stepping lemmings

to charge over the cliff at a full charge

will only feed the sand crabs…

the density of bacterial infusion by tourists them selves

is an overlooked feature in a short sighted equation…

the coincidental uric acid from swimmers visiting waikiki

may in itself be enough cure to detox the sand

one solution

might wish us enmasse to excavate…

the sand?

like I mentioned about the sea cucumber

the #1 organism devoted to ssaaaannnndddd cleaning

just go to the higgh cucumber concentration population

and borrow some for a few months

and then take em back .

how bout:

get a bus of movie stars to have their

pictures taken with sea cucumbers

great photo op!

perhaps better than kissing babies,

poly tishans and activist junquies too

kissing cuke kumbers…WOW

now we got a plan…whoopie !!!

deluxe a go go intervention

with cheeze and secret sauce !

Put a moratorium on people defacating in waikiki .

have em hold it till they get to sealife park.

…ambrose…

or perhaps to the sewage spill capital of the

free world…

have they excavated the sand in santa monica bay?

I think not.

whaddya do with the excavated sand ?

take it to the laundromat?

and then bring it back?

slow it down a little and

watch and learn

the planet will shake off the

human viral infection.

eventually.

This planet is greater than

we yet concieve…

dig that .

  Ours is an

infintesimal intelect

compared to the greatness

of understanding exhibited

by just this one ocean.