![\"\u02bb\u012aao](\"http:\/\/civilbeat.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sean-hower-maui-kona-low-storm-iao-valley-aerial-1024x394.jpg\")
Half of the samples taken from the stream mouth at \u02bb\u012aao Valley on Maui exceeded the state health department\u2019s standards for enterococcus bacteria in 2025. (Sean Hower\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\nSurfrider Foundation\u2019s annual report on regular testing at 90 beaches reveals \u201ca dismal situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I get sick if I swim there?\u201d That\u2019s one question the Surfrider Foundation wants to answer for residents of O\u02bbahu, Maui and Kaua\u02bbi with its latest water quality report.<\/p>\n
Based on the foundation\u2019s ongoing community science effort, the report compiles data from more than 1,100 water samples gathered by volunteers at 90 beaches across the three islands in 2025. Twenty-four of the sites failed to meet the state\u2019s recreational health standards for fecal indicator bacteria more than 50% of the time. And two \u2014 the Moloa\u2018a Stream mouth on Kaua\u02bbi and Punalu\u2018u Beach Park on \u200b\u200bO\u02bbahu \u2014 failed every single time they were tested.<\/p>\n
Hannah Lilley, Hawai\u02bbi regional manager at Surfrider Foundation, said while the volunteers sampled water from a different set of hotspots than they did in 2024, the data is consistent with previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dismal situation, and it\u2019s only going to get worse with climate impacts,\u201d Lilley said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Both sea level rise and flooding can overwhelm the islands\u2019 outdated wastewater infrastructure.
Lilley believes the recent Kona low storms were a stress test for that infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t do well. During and immediately after the storms, we were sampling across our three Blue Water Task Force labs and Maui and O\u2018ahu had bacteria levels that were 10 to 20 times over what the limit is,\u201d she said. \u201cFlooding obviously mobilizes all the pollutants that are already in the watershed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Water Task Force Now is a national network with over 60 chapter-run labs that measure bacteria levels at more than 600 ocean, bay, estuary and freshwater sampling sites across the country.<\/p>\n
Half of the samples taken from the stream mouth at \u02bb\u012aao Valley on Maui exceeded the state health department\u2019s standards for enterococcus bacteria in 2025. (Sean Hower\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
According to Surfrider\u2019s research, beaches that are both downhill from areas with large numbers of cesspools, and located at or near the mouth of a stream or another fresh water outlet, are the most likely to be polluted with enterococcus bacteria.<\/p>\n
Enterococcus isn\u2019t usually harmful itself, but it is what\u2019s called a \u201cfecal indicator bacteria,\u201d meaning it signals the potential presence of human or animal waste in the water. And if it\u2019s in the water at significant numbers, that means it is more likely that other illness-causing bacteria, viruses and other invisible pathogens are present.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Surfrider doesn\u2019t have the data needed to tie individual illnesses with the presence of pollution, but Lilley said she had seen a great deal of anecdotal evidence of the problem. \u201cI know a lot of people that were going up on the North Shore and helping in the flood response effort, and then came down with really nasty gastrointestinal illnesses,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had, across the board, a lot of people reaching out to our Blue Water Task Force leads, complaining about getting sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed to a reporting tool from the nonprofit WAI called Seasick<\/a>, which aims to gather data with the explicit purpose of influencing policy on cesspool conversion.<\/p>\n With 83,000 cesspools \u2014 over half of which are on the Big Island \u2014 Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s residents send an estimated 52 million gallons of wastewater into the groundwater below every day. The state would have to convert 3,000 every year to reach the goal set by the statewide mandate to convert them all by 2050.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re converting only a fraction of that,\u201d Lilley said.<\/p>\n Converting a cesspool to a septic system can cost upward of $20,000, and there has been little support from the state so far. A bill introduced in the last legislative session would have established a technical advisory group, tasked with evaluating and updating the existing administrative rules, identifying barriers to conversion and exploring affordable alternatives to traditional conversions. It didn\u2019t pass, but the Legislature did approve one to create a revolving loan fund<\/a> to provide low interest or forgivable loans to homeowners to upgrade their systems.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Surfrider is also advocating for more federal funding under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health or BEACH Act, an amendment to the Clean Water Act that has funded water quality monitoring programs in all 50 states.<\/p>\n \u201cOur Blue Water Task Force is designed to complement that program, but unfortunately it has been flat-funded for 25 years, so we\u2019re pushing for an inflation-adjusted amount of $17.6 million,\u201d Lilley said. More funding is also needed at the county and state level, she added, since the state isn\u2019t receiving federal funds for water testing.<\/p>\n Pollution at swim spots tends to be worse on O\u2018ahu and Kaua\u2018i than it is Maui due to the islands\u2019 geology \u2014 there are more beaches on the windward, wetter side of O\u02bbahu and Kaua\u02bbi. But stream outlets are also just popular spots for swimming across the board, and that\u2019s why Lilley said the work to gather and test samples in those spots continues to be so important.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see a lot of keiki playing there, and families gathering \u2014 at Moloa\u2018a in particular. This is where homeschool groups gather, fishermen rely on this area, and it\u2019s where we consistently see some of the worst bacteria levels,\u201d Lilley said. \u201cThat\u2019s why monitoring and getting that information out there is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n Civil Beat\u2019s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai\u2018i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.<\/p>\n Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/p>\n \n Sorry. That’s an invalid e-mail.\n <\/p>\n \n Thanks! We’ll send you a confirmation e-mail shortly.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surfrider Foundation\u2019s annual report on regular testing at 90 beaches reveals \u201ca dismal situation.\u201d \u201cCan I get sick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-692578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/civilbeat.org\/wp-content\/themes\/becivil\/dist\/images\/logo10.png\"){kind=logo}
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