This is an opinion letter in response to a recently published Hawaii Department of Health report on May 22 (“Mahaulepu and Waikomo Watersheds PhyloChip Source Tracking Study, Hawaii”) and associated The Garden Island article (“Study clears water for swimmers”) published on June 6 of this year.
The Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) report makes several claims and draws conclusions that contradict the actual results of the source tracking study. It is my role as the scientist now leading the Surfrider Foundation’s Kauai Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) that I am providing this letter.
The Surfrider Foundation’s BWTF shares the same goals as the HDOH in keeping the community informed on the levels of pollution in our watersheds and to protect the public from unnecessary exposure to potentially harmful pathogens that can make swimmers sick. Because of this, I have grave concern and confusion over the very strong assertions made by the HDOH from the data presented in the final report for the PhyloChip Source Tracking Study conducted in the Mahaulepu and Waikomo Watersheds. The HDOH claims that the water in Mahaulepu is “safe” for human exposure despite inconsistent and conflicting data generated by the study and presented in the report.
While a more in-depth response to the HDOH and EPA is forthcoming, here are some concerns that the Surfrider Foundation has with this study and report. The stated goal of the study was to measure the influence of human, animal, and environmental sources of fecal indicator bacteria on water quality in both the Mahaulepu and Waikomo watersheds. However, the results of the study were inconsistent and did not verify any one source that could be attributed to the majority of the bacteria measured in water samples collected from the Waiopili Stream.
In their press release the HDOH asserted that neither human or animal waste was responsible for the bacteria measured in the stream and point instead to ‘natural’ sources such as stream sediment, soil and marine plants as the source of the bacteria. However, both human and animal sources were identified as contributing to the bacteria measured in several of the tested samples. Despite the conflicting data, the report concluded that “High concentrations of FIB (Fecal Indicating Bacteria) in both Waiopili Ditch and Waikomo Stream were not caused by human or animal fecal contamination.”
This statement is simply not supported by the actual results of the study. The conclusions made in the report that exonerate human sources from contributing to the fecal indicating bacteria in the Mahaulepu watershed should be rescinded, as should HDOH’s assertion that the bacteria are from natural sources that do not pose a human health risk. The study’s analysis of the sediment samples from the stream did not match the bacteria found in the stream water (the most likely ‘natural’ source of bacteria to consider), and samples of soil throughout the watershed were not tested. The assertion by the HDOH that the observed bacteria in the stream was from natural sources contradicts the results of the study.
Most importantly, the HDOH study did not look at the presence of disease-causing bacteria or viruses in the water. The HDOH proclamation that the tested watershed, or our other waterways, are “clean” is simply false. Moreover, fecal indicating bacteria, like those tested in the HDOH study, are themselves opportunistic pathogens and can present health risks on their own. It is alarming to me that fully two-thirds of the waterways tested by Surfrider’s BWTF on Kauai are chronically contaminated with fecal indicating bacteria, testing at levels that far exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for what is considered to be “safe” for swimming. It is true that testing for fecal indicating bacteria is not perfect, and there is always some estimation involved in determining potential health risks. But the association between high levels of fecal indicating bacteria and the presence of other pathogens has been repeatedly reported in numerous scientific and epidemiological studies worldwide, and this relationship has likewise been proven here in Hawaii as well. It is also important to note that testing for fecal indicating bacteria is the standard, as defined by the EPA, for monitoring water quality to protect public health in recreational waters.
It is the HDOH’s responsibility to ensure the public’s safe use of our waterways. As a microbiologist, I have spent my entire professional career looking for better technologies to improve human health, and I applaud the DHOH’s efforts to find new technologies to test our waterways. However, in their assessment of a new technology, their conclusion that there is no human health risk from the high level of bacteria measured regularly in the Waiopili Stream in Mahaulepu is not justified and falls short of the agency’s mission to protect public health.
It is my opinion, and that of the Surfrider Foundation, that the HDOH should take the more prudent and precautionary approach to continue warning the public of potential health risks of polluted water exposure, even while still trying to figure out where the pollution is coming from and the specific health risk posed. This includes warning the public of high bacterial counts in our waterways that exceed the EPA’s standards for human health.
A more responsible conclusion to draw from the results of the Mahaulepu and Waikomo Watersheds PhyloChip Source Tracking Study would be to acknowledge the inconsistencies in the data and to outline the need for further studies needed to more precisely determine the public health risk in these watersheds (as well as bacterial contamination sources!). These studies determine the presence and abundance of pathogens in the stream that can make people sick.
In conclusion, there is a well-established relationship between bacterial contamination of water—regardless of the source—and the burden of disease and economic loss it can wreck on a community. It is of grave concern to me that the HDOH would use inconsistent and conflicting data generated by this study to make overarching pronouncements about the safety of Kauai’s waterways. It is unfortunate that an organization charged with protecting the public would not take a more precautionary approach to protecting public health when exact threats are still to be determined. It is dangerous territory when incomplete science is used to guide public policy, regardless of the motives.
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John P. Alderete, PhD, MBA, is with the Surfrider Blue Water Task Force on Kauai.
It would appear that, based on your conclusions, HDOH is more concerned with attracting vacationers than protecting them. The obvious solution is to trace the sources of the contamination and take the necessary measures to eliminate the contributing factors. Apparently that will necessitate more manpower and money than the HDOH is willing to provide.
Thank you, John Alderete for your sharing about the less than vigorous warning on our polluted streams on Kauai.
Are we to assume that other than the Mahaulepu and Waikomo waters, that the other streams on Kauai are safe? What can you tell is about that? Perhaps you could respond in a Comment.
Also we have recently read where a concerned group, can’t recall their name, was it the World Health Organization (?), WHO, well whoever, said that 74 of the world’s largest rivers tested unsafe LEVELS for contaminants, namely ANTIBIOTICS. Antibiotics in rivers? Yes, that is what it said…!
The ANTIBIOTICS pointed out are antibiotics from human ingestion for the treatment of diseases, and livestock dosages for cattle and chickens used to prevent diseases in these animals before they are slaughtered for food for humans to consume. The animals we eat have lots of Antibiotics in them? Yes that is true for many of the animals we eat, unless the package says NOT…!
Apparently huge dosages of antibiotics are given to livestock to prevent diseases in these animals as they live indoors only, in containment pens, where the chickens are each confined to less than 1 square foot of space during their short lives while also fed growth hormones to fatten them up for the slaughter…themselves living on top of their own fecal waste on the floors.
And living indoors their entire short lives before slaughter means they never get any sunlight on their bodies. Why that is not good for sentient beings.
Growth hormones in the animals that we eat, can impact the growth of tumors in humans. I’ve often wondered that if animals get tumors, cancerous or not, benign or malignant, and we eat those animals, do we get their tumors…? ? ?
These dangerous antibiotic levels in rivers are from animal excretion runoff in the water table adjacent to factory farmed livestock industry, but also sewage disbursement into rivers and feeder streams from septic waste water flow and sewage emissions.
Antibiotics are known as forever drugs, once made they keep on going after being excreted through urine and feces from humans and animals. Antibiotics are against life and kill of the natural good bacteria in our bodies and in our digestive tract. There are trillions of these good bacteria in our digestive tract that antibiotics kill off and damage what is called our Microbiome, as well as good bacteria in the other parts of our bodies.
Disease in the colon of our digestive tract occurs when the microbiome is harmed by antibiotics and even harmed bynagricultural chemicals in our foods.
Could this type of dangerous pollution be in our rivers and streams on Kauai, especially waterways or sewage plant wastewater near our hospitals.
Mr. Alderete, perhaps SURFRIDER could expand their search for pollutants in our waters looking for dangerous and “wild” Antibiotics and Agricultural poisons like Glyphosate.
Antibiotics…after all, the word itself means against life.
Mahalo,
Charles
Thank you Mr Alderete for your diligence and for informing us about this problem not being taken care of correctly. A big mahalo also to the Surfrider Blue Water task force.
“It is dangerous territory when incomplete science is used to guide public policy, regardless of the motives.”
You mean kind of like the hypothesis of anthropogenic warming caused by CO2?
RG DeSoto
Reviewing all of your replies to TGI articles paints an interesting picture. I would be very curious to see what YOU have done on this island to improve anything, besides complain.
Your comment here is at best a false equivalence, and at worst a sad attempt to insert your trolling into a serious discussion. Thanks, but goodbye, Felicia.
Charlie – Dr Aldrete pointed out that 2/3 of Kaua`i samples were polluted and that this is a preliminary response.
“It is dangerous territory when incomplete science is used to guide public policy, regardless of the motives.”
Indeed. But that didn’t stop Surfrider from pushing for public policy based on incomplete and even downright false claims about agricultural pesticides, the glyphosate found in its very questionable honey study, etc.
Let me guess; you have a stake in the Ag business here? That’s the only possible explanation for the ignorance of your comment. Surfrider is not a government entity. They can express their opinions about public policy as you can. You make a bold statement about false claims; please, bring them forward. Let’s address them. Scientifically and with real facts of course, and not anecdotally.
Amused: well said! LOL…