Tests run on ocean water near Princeville’s SeaLodge beach showed normal bacteria levels and the Department of Health has announced that the area is safe, according to Watson Okubo of the Clean Water Branch. “The bacteria levels are low, which
Tests run on ocean water near Princeville’s SeaLodge beach showed normal bacteria levels and the Department of Health has announced that the area is safe, according to Watson Okubo of the Clean Water Branch.
“The bacteria levels are low, which means either the waste did not reach the ocean, or that it mixed very well,” he said yesterday.
Okubo said that the department’s Kaua‘i staff would be removing warning signs on trails to the beach and that the advisory on the Clean Water Branch’s government Web site would also be taken down.
Some 1,500 gallons of wastewater escaped when a lift station briefly lost power Tuesday morning.
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative spokesperson Shelley Paik said Tuesday that power had been out for between an hour and an hour and a half due to an underground fault.
Heavy vegetation in the valley may have prevented much of the waste from reaching a stream and, subsequently, the ocean.
Crews were able to disinfect the land area near the station Tuesday, but could not do the same for the ocean, so water samples were collected and tested.
