{"id":1918,"date":"2021-03-04T20:29:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T04:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coral.org\/news\/hawaii-county-allocates-1-8-million-to-clean-water-and-coral-reefs\/"},"modified":"2021-11-02T10:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T17:28:46","slug":"hawaii-county-allocates-1-8-million-to-clean-water-and-coral-reefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/blog\/hawaii-county-allocates-1-8-million-to-clean-water-and-coral-reefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai’i County Allocates $1.8 Million to Clean Water and Coral Reefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hawai\u2018i County Council on March 3 voted to approve the allocation of $1.8 million to address ocean sewage pollution in Puak\u014d, Hawai\u2018i.<\/p>\n

The Puak\u014d coastline is one of 14 priority sites that have been identified in Hawai\u2018i as areas to be transitioned off of cesspools. Across the state, an estimated 88,000 cesspools release 53 million gallons of raw sewage into the groundwater every day. In waterways and coastal areas, like Puak\u014d, it is sometimes mere hours before that sewage enters the marine environment. The Puak\u014d community is leading the way in this transition to improved wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) has worked alongside the Puak\u014d community under their Clean Water for Reefs program to address wastewater pollution on the Puak\u014d reef. Along the Puak\u014d coast there are 643 homes that use cesspool, septic systems, and aerobic treatment systems\u2014 but due to Hawai\u2018i Island\u2019s highly porous geology, those systems mean that untreated sewage often leaks directly into the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some places, if you flush your toilet in the evening, and you go for a swim in the morning, you\u2019re actually swimming in your own sewage,\u201d says Dr. Steven Colbert of the University of Hawai\u2018i at Hilo.<\/p>\n

\"puako
Clean Water for Reefs volunteers in Puako take a water sample for quality testing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Untreated sewage contains harmful bacteria, pathogens and nutrients that pose a risk to human health and coral reefs. The increase of nutrients in the ocean can lead to coral disease and cause destructive algal blooms that can kill corals and damage the coral reef ecosystem.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Hawai\u2018i Department of Health allocated $1.5 million to the project, provided the County of Hawai\u2018i matched those funds by twenty percent. On March 3, Hawai\u2018i County Council voted to encumber those funds and agreed to the $300,000 match\u2014bringing the project total to $1.8 million. The funds will support the development of a Puak\u014d facilities plan for a wastewater system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge win for the Puak\u014d community,\u201d says Erica Perez, Senior Program Manager at the Coral Reef Alliance. \u201cIt took a lot of people to make this happen, and we are so incredibly grateful to all of our partners for supporting clean water for communities and coral reefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clean
Volunteers in Puako learn about water quality testing and how to take water samples.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hawai\u2018i County Council on March 3 voted to approve the allocation of $1.8 million to address ocean sewage pollution in Puak\u014d, Hawai\u2018i. The Puak\u014d coastline is one of 14 priority sites that have been identified in Hawai\u2018i as areas to be transitioned off of cesspools. Across the state, an estimated 88,000 cesspools release 53… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_genesis_transparent_header":false,"_genesis_hide_siblings_nav":false,"_genesis_hide_flyout":false,"_genesis_subtitle":"","_genesis_subheading":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[311],"tags":[354,57,39,61,298,361,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-1918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news","8":"tag-announcements","9":"tag-clean-water","10":"tag-hawaii","11":"tag-hawaii-island","12":"tag-local","13":"tag-lookback","14":"tag-puako","15":"entry"},"acf":[],"template_part":"\n

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