 "Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr")
Among its natural amenities, Hawai‘i’s clean, crisp drinking water, collected from rain in high mountain ridges, has become one of the most famous. Still, studies show all states have had toxins in their water within the past five years.
Think back to 2006. The state’s largest recorded sewage spill – approximately 48 million gallons of raw sewage – flowed into the Ala Wai Canal. Later that year, numerous smaller spills – 800 gallons, still a significant amount – spilled into the Ala Wai.
Reports of contaminated ocean water prevented people from visiting beaches, and some extra-precautious folks even refused to drink water from the tap.
But then it all stopped. The chaos and concern diminished, despite reports as recent as this past October that showed another 800-gallon Ala Wai sewage spill. Paddlers continue to paddle in the canal, joggers still jog along the sidewalk, and swimmers jump into ocean waters so close to where the canal meets the sea near Ala Moana Beach Park.
Aside from our ocean water, our drinking water also had its share of violations in the past five years. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Fort Kamehameha Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) was recently found to have high traces of cadmium, a metal element often found in paint that can lead to respiratory problems, kidney failure and bone weakening.
Sand Island WWTP was penalized due to high levels of chlordane and dieldrin, compounds in pesticides that can cause convulsions and respiratory depression.
Still, Hawai‘i’s waters are safer in comparison to the mainland. According to a New York Times analysis of federal data, 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. This means 49 million people have been exposed to water tainted with arsenic, pesticides, drugs, uranium and sewage.
Many of the bacteria and contaminants can lead to cancer, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. And though researchers say a hypothesis connecting contaminated water and health problems is hard to prove due to certain chronic illnesses, as many as 19 million Americans annually become ill due to parasites, viruses and bacteria in drinking water, according to the Times analysis.
Few water treatment systems – roughly 8 percent – have been penalized. Some water treatment plants also remain untested or were not notified about high levels of toxicity.
It is strange that a simple and important human necessity cannot be properly taken care of. Yet, the U.S. is dumping all its money into wars and health care – quite the misdirection.
“This administration has made it clear that clean water is a top priority,” EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy told the New York Times. “The previous eight years provide a perfect example of what happens when political leadership fails to act to protect our health and the environment.”
But what caused this slide for so many years? Skeptics blame a laissez-faire attitude and wonder if the water problem will be fixed at all since it is not a multimillion dollar issue.
The U.S. too often ignores the roots of problems, whether they be changing diets, food regulations, automobile and environmental regulations, or, now, the purity of our water. We must take things one step at a time and first analyze the cause of our increasing cancer rates that may be linked to dirty water.
Even more upsetting, the Environmental Working Group study found that bottled water had traces of fertilizer, pain relievers, caffeine and radioactive elements. Most brands, however, at least meet federal health standards for drinking water, so they are a logical alternative to drinking from the tap in certain counties.
Many students plan on going home to the mainland for winter break; to see if your state has issues with the toxicity levels in its water, visit: projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/polluters.
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