State probing sewage leak

Kaua’i County officials said Tuesday that Kalapaki Beach will probably remain off-limits to swimming and surfing until late Thursday or Friday, and state authorities said they want to find out what caused the sewage leak that has closed the beach since Sunday.

The beach was closed Sunday morning nearly eight hours after 50,000 gallons of treated sewage flowed down Nawiliwili Stream into Kalapaki Bay.

An alarm system and two pumps failed at the nearby Lihu’e wastewater treatment plant Saturday night. County officials initially said 250,000 gallons of treated sewage leaked onto the Kaua’i Lagoons golf courses, but later downgraded the spill to the 50,000 gallons that got into the stream and the bay.

The incident is being investigated by state health officials.

“This particular incident is unusual. A triple failure (pumps and alarm) is highly unusual, and we will be looking into the cause of the failure. There will be an emphasis on this incident because of the large volume of the spill,” said Janice Okubo, state Department of Health spokeswoman.

County spokeswoman Beth Tokioka said Tuesday there was no answer to why the alarms and the pumps failed. The treatment facility was unmanned at the time of the spill, but the alarm would have notified wastewater personnel.

There had been hope that Kalapaki Beach would be open by toda, but results of random sampling of bacterial levels haven’t been low enough to safely allow swimming, wading, surfing and body boarding. Health department officials and county wastewater workers continue to test the water.

Before this spill, the last random testing by state officials was last October. At that time, the bay was satisfactorily within environmental limits, officials said.

Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net