 Aloha and welcome to Eyes of on Hawaii. I'm your host Carol Cox and today I really appreciate you joining us here at Think Tech Hawaii and if you'd like to see any of our shows go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and we'll give more information on other information on how to contact us. But have an interesting subject here today. Many of you have gone to Waikiki, the jewel of the Pacific, the tourist gather and it's a beautiful place and what we're going to do today is show you something that many thousands if not a couple million over the years have visited Waikiki and is not aware that the simple things as the outdoor showers and they are presenting a problem and have presented a problem for many, many years as far back as the Jeremy Harris era but they still present problems and those problems are health risk and health concerns and the State of Hawaii Department of Health has actually spoken to those issues and those issues are those kinds of concerns where bacteria in the water and we're going to get a little deeper we've been investigating this for some while now and we have some documents here that we're share with you and kind of interesting and that we wonder we hear talk about cleaning the earth and keeping the oceans clean and the environmental concerns and all of that and we know that staff and some of the other really bad bacterias are causing a ricking havoc on some people in their health and those that are compromised with the immune deficiencies visit the beach and not knowing what they're exposing themselves they're mainly like myself I'm always worried about a suntan getting sunscreen lotion on me but even sunscreen lotion is a problem so I want to show you a few pictures here and give you bring your attention to something that's so the first shot here when we say outdoor showers now this is a state of affairs you're a state of the conditions at the outdoor showers at the Waikiki this area we're talking about an area between Queens Beach and Cuhill or Kapahulu groin that's a consisting of about eight nine or seven eight nine showers such as these now you you go and you bathe and it's supposed to the theory is this waters to percolate into the ground and the sand is left in the dry box or what have you I don't know how it really works but in theory but here's a problem these water showers these showers are not connected to the sewer line and the sewer line is not that far so the standing water creating slime and also you'll find tabs chlorine tabs that the city management has placed in there to kill the bacteria but people what you think is waves they have washed up on the shore and gotten the sidewalks wet in reality it's actually wastewater now some might think well a shower what is wrong with shower water well it's nasty water first of all and I don't know anyone that would want to weigh the wade or bathe or rinse off or wallow or lie on the beach in this kind of water and this soil or the sand that this water touches is depositing bacteria and percolating in the ocean or into the ground but the bigger problem is that it's running into the ocean and now you know it's so easy for someone to say well this is a matter that the environmental is creating a problem creating a concern raising you know making trouble about much to do about nothing but this is a real serious problem first of all there's a clean water act that is of concern a federal act there is a state law there is a building codes that have come to a concern that sewage should not again sewage should not be placed on this the beach it should not be allowed to flow from the beach into the ocean and therefore when people are lying they're sunning they're not knowing that they are being exposed to bacteria and this is a site here this picture that we see here is an actual that we were told initially that there were no flows from these showers to the ocean so we went down and documented this by photographing it and also by taking drone shots overhead shots and so that you'll understand this is as I began to say this is not about an individual's assessment as a citizen this is we went and we recovered documents from the state health department and on and this is some while back nothing gets done at a fast pace here and I guess once you hear this letter it would be you could go away and conclude that the state health department's bar is bigger than its bite that's the only take that I can take away from this and in September 2012 the state went to the beach area and they did a wastewater spill complaint inspection from our outdoor showers along the Cooheal Beach between Kapahulu groin to the police substation well we went further than that and to document we wanted to see for ourselves firsthand are these showers and the water flowing and percolating as they say they are or are they actually going into the ocean are they exposing people all of these questions and what we did in fact fine and documented here's one example the photograph you see here now this is near the Queens Beach the concession area this is not beach water folks this is not a wave that have washed over and splashed this is wastewater or sewage flowing down from this the shower into the ocean as we've shown you holes and drainage there now you would think this is the jewel of the Pacific this is the jewel of Waikiki is it's an attraction many thousands and thousands of people come here per month but yet this is what we expose them to I believe we can do better and I know we can and I know the law requires us to do better but I spoke with Jason wool of the parks and recreation he's one of the managers there and he attempted to explain to me that the reason they do not have these things attached to the sewer lines is that when it rains the rain then washes into the storm drain and then goes into the sewer line and therefore creating a potential for flooding or backup or overflow of the sewage system now folks that's hard to accept because we're putting high rises along the same area in Waikiki with hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of new units demanding and placing a demand and businesses on these bath these showers and the the sewage area sewage line so how could a bathroom or a shower an outdoor shower overwhelm the system when high rises are not the shot here that you see here this is another yet another example of where they claim water is not going into the ocean we've documented it now the state cannot say that it is not happening the city and county of Honolulu cannot say so imagine now the people at the end there near the beach and this is sewer water flowing into the ocean and people and the children are playing in the streams and that that is made from the runoff I don't want to sound like an alarmist but the problem here is that they say that it costs too much in a rebuttal to fix this problem the proper way it costs too much but what is the actual cost to one's health what is one that comes here and find themselves with staff infection maybe triggered by visits to the shower or standing in the water or what have you and you know we were able to actually see people standing there and going relieving themselves or urinating in and near around the showers there when the water hit them and we also saw people one lady for example their baby was apparently had mishap or went to the bathroom in the Pampas clean the Pampas off and then took the baby and washed it at the shower so again if you notice the green slime in this one photograph that we're showing here now this is running off and look as though I would say 98% of the people that I watch there for about 35 or minutes to an hour we observed approximately 98% of them got out of the water and went to the shower before they left the beach soap shampoo all of those things are used and then in these showers and then they're allowed to rush down now you wouldn't think that mosquitoes would be a problem but the state health department documented in one instance a visit mosquito larvae now we documented here's soap scum scum of just really horrible nasty substance just floating on the water would you want to be part of that how about coming to Waikiki and sunning yourself and wallowing in a soup of wastewater now the state told them that the city and count of Honolulu on September 13 2012 staff conducted a site investigation of five outdoor showers along Kohio beach between the Kapahulu groin to the police beach substation the investigation verified the sand traps of three outdoor showers near Liliu Kalani Avenue Ulu Nui Avenue and the Avenue site flowed down a steep slope and directly into the ocean that was 2012 the bark is bigger than the bite no citation no violations but the state informs the city and county of Honolulu that in this letter in 2012 the wastewater spills may subject the city to provisions of HRS chapter 342 D and Hawaii of administrative rule 116206 dash one including penalties not to exceed $25,000 per day yet no fines were assessed no fines were levied and they're still operating and whereas the state says they will visit five of the showers we visited at least seven or eight of them I think and each one of them found their way to the water in the ocean now you see the children there in this photograph playing down at the receiving end of the water and you can see should this be going on in Hawaii should this be going on at the jewel of the Pacific Waikiki now we're not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill we just know historically what the concerns are with bacteria with staff and clean water act and also why it should go to the sewer is that we've now learned about the impacts of and the constituents in sunscreen lotion how it impacts the reefs and what have you so that becomes a problem and also the the sand itself the sand harbors some bacteria and we don't know what kind if it's E. coli or whatever is in the soil from the years the aerobic bacteria or the bacteria that builds up there and just sits there every day in day out now the problem here is that the city believes as a they communicated to me that this really is not a big problem well we actually talked to mr. Trevor Ozawa's a city councilman Trevor Ozawa's he is a councilman for Waikiki district and we talked with his office and they share with us that they visited the site two years ago and based on complaints they had received and the complainant said that we've informed them that everything was okay had been addressed and fixed well today you see apparently it either broke again or it was never fixed and my assessment is uh it was broken still broken now this is an interesting picture you see this picture and you can see where the sand has been wet what is it wet from is it wet from the waves from the ocean on high tide or is it from a sprinkler system well no what it really is this more sand and the lady you see sitting there in it now is actually wet from the wastewater from the showers that is the actual source of the moisture and she's unsuspectingly there with her young baby and young children and other people with their children sitting and lying and wallowing and sunning in this water stained sand with bacteria from upstream which is a shower so right now what i'm going to do is take a break and we'll be back and we're talking about the dirty showers in Waikiki and you might want to pay attention to this and pay close attention and let's see what we can do to ask the city and county and we'll ask them maybe we'll invite them on think tech and we'll be back shortly in about a minute thank you go where they have never gone before dive heart has helped them transition to their new normal search dive heart.org and share our mission with others and in the process help people of all abilities imagine the possibilities welcome back to the eyes of hawaii i'm your host carol cox and this is think tech hawaii and if you'd like to see some of our shows go to think tech hawaii.com and there you can get all of the shows and posted and other hosts or other shows that we broadcast out so please do that go to thinktech hawaii.com and we're talking about the showers outdoor showers at Waikiki between the kapahulu groin and queens beach now i'm i'm referencing a an old document when i say old uh because it's the document is dated 2012 and law enforcement or an enforcement document inspection by the state now i can't tell you why the state didn't take any action but what i do can tell you is that what i can tell you is that the state did visit the site and they visited the site to inspect based on complaints of wastewater being allowed to run into the ocean from these showers so again this letter that i'm looking at that i have here it it says from the state please be aware that causing or allowing any wastewater system on your property to create or contribute to a wastewater spill including showers washwater discharges is a violation of section 1162-06 subsection g hawaii administrative rules i again i want to emphasize that this isn't something that i'm placing my interpretation or projecting on this subject this is serious water pollution is a very serious matter when you have a mixture of people human beings and children young children and the seniors that are going there and unknowingly waiting and wallowing and bathing it becomes a problem we can do better we have to do better because legally it is a requirement to prevent this now this is an example of an i'll read then an inspection report later where the same situation was mentioned back in 2012 almost to date it's the same condition so outdoor shower one across from street of marriott the water in the outdoor water feature appeared fairly clear one chlorine tablet was noted in the shallow pool and the shower sand trap was not overflowing the water level was about six inches below the concrete pavement here's a picture with the scum i don't have any explanation for that one i honestly don't i i can't bring my mind to accept this that here in honolulu hawaii we have the jewel of the pacific wikiki beach and we have scum for thousands of people to reverse this area come and go through this area and we in turn have this condition sitting there and have been in this condition for some 20 years and yet the current administration is explaining in a way as it one said to me yesterday in discussion was that the rail is taking a great bit of our resources so therefore the if the rail is that costly how costly is it to i would ask to the people that are sick and by this condition of soap scum bacteria urine laden water bacteria laden sand washington the ocean and you're wallowing and playing and swimming in it what's that cost and unfortunately when people get sick they probably wouldn't be related to their visit to wikiki beach now this is the scum you can't call it soap sud because it's not it's just sitting there and had a kind of a foul odor to it but we didn't want to get too close but again you can see this for yourself the outdoor shower number two at klo honey avenue this outdoor shower has a waterfall feature along the kalakawa street side of the shower the shower is probably the one complainant identified as one of the problematic showers the waters in the waterfall feature appeared fairly clear a couple of chlorine tablets were noted in the water the shower sand trap was not overflowing again why do they need chlorine tablets in these waters must be concerned with bacteria would you say quite possible number three the outdoor shower at number three lily oak alani and street from the pacific beach hotel the water and the outdoor feature appeared to be stagnant and there was were lots of mosquito larvae the shower sand trap overflowed onto the surrounding beach and the shower water flowed towards a high water mark we watched the flow of water for the good 30 minutes to see if the shower would eventually reach the ocean noted lots of people walking through the water the flow stopped it disappeared in beach sand just short of high water mark again now this isn't just someone anyone writing this this is a state health department inspectors from the wastewater branch so the biggest question that i have in in this whole process is that if we know that it's wastewater and we know people are going to come in contact with and we're talking about thousands of people the average person that go to the beach is going to wash the sand at a minimum from them and then they are using soap and shampoo now as part of this condition that the the state placed on the city and count of honolulu during this visit in 2012 we recommend the city staff inspect the shower traps and dry wells and implement the following verify percolation rates all outdoor shower dry wells a pool of draining dry well is symptomatic of plugging of sand matted hair scum debris that may result in the frequent backups of sand traps percolation rates may also diminish over the time uh plugging may occur through the public's use of soap and suntan lotion signs should be posted at each outdoor shower to prohibit use of soap while showering well the city did comply with that but it's posted high and and if you look at the photograph that we have right there up now this one has been closed why is it closed because it pulls a threat to people because of the slime because of the green matter that grows on it and the algae and generally when algae bloom and grow thick you got high it's rich in nitrogen nutrients or something so clearly there's a problem and it has no reason to be there alone wikiki beach absolutely there is just no way now outdoor shower number five behind the police station at wikiki beach the bistro the shower sand trap overflowed onto the surrounding beach the shower was immediately seeped into the beach sand the showers located a good distance from the ocean and in five they had another one here the shower had a rock wall and the ocean side of the shower the shower sand trap overflowed and shower water flowed around the rock which we showed you that was the one with the scum in it and again the waves flowed halfway up the slope and sucked the shower water out with each receding i i'm i'm lost for an explanation i i'm still searching of in our process in this investigation and to ask the city why why would they allow such a dirty condition to exist and exposing people to this kind of condition it's not environmentally sound it can be easily fixed now we were told again there were some concerns and hit it but we were told by city official that if they allow it to hook up to the sewer lines the sewer lines would cause a backup and cause a major overflow of the sewer onto the streets and as i pointed out to you earlier we have high rises being built as i speak right now and they're not concerned with backup but a small shower that is just using in theory fresh water and generating fresh water so there's something amiss here something is wrong and and i think the mayor and his administration should own up to this one and fix it and and refrain from exposing people to these conditions they're not healthy they're not clean they're not good and they're not good for the environment and again if you're down there the picture that we have now it is a actual shower and you can see in the dark side there up top there's a big medallion that says no soap and no shampoo and it drains to the ocean that's should be noted and i was told by the city official that they have no way of policing that so in other words we're just got to live with it i guess unless we demand more of the mayor and the city's administration and and we're going to contact councilman trevor ozawa and see if he has any comments or anything to add in the future and we'll be back and talking about this and i appreciate you listening in and again this is eyes on hawaii on the think tech hawaii dot com so please if you want to see view some of our shows in the earlier go to think tech hawaii dot com and aloha