Masthead
Conference
Oct. 30-31,
2008
Pagoda Hotel, Honolulu



Agenda

Registration
Form

PDF version

Call for Posters

How Clean or Polluted are Hawaii's Drinking and Recreational Waters?


The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) of the University of Hawaii is sponsoring this conference to meet its federally mandated goals:

  • To serve as the water and environmental research center in the state of Hawaii by conducting research to identify, characterize and quantify water/environmental related problems in Hawaii.

  • To disseminate the knowledge generated by our research.

  • To assist Pacific region governments in managing their water resources.
 Conference Goals:
  1. To focus on the use of water quality monitoring data as the basis for determining the degree of pollution and relative safety of waters, which have been designated for recreational and for drinking uses in the state of Hawaii.

  2. To initially assess the degree of pollution and relative safety of these waters using guidelines as established by meeting the requirements of USEPA water quality standards for drinking water (Safe Drinking Act) and for recreational water (Clean Water Act/Beach Act).

  3. To further assess the degree of pollution and health risks of these same waters based on using other water quality monitoring data and by using the weight of evidence approach.

  4. To summarize the results of water quality monitoring data and to identify problems and challenges in assessing the true quality of waters in Hawaii.

  5. To provide recommendations for future actions.
Motivation for this Conference:
  1. The validity of government water quality regulations is increasingly being questioned by scientists and the public for various reasons.

  2. Many scientists believe that existing water quality standards do not predict risk nor protect public health as implied by published guidelines.

  3. Establishing water quality standards, and predictions of health risk, based on indicators of pollutants rather than specific disease-causing pollutants themselves is flawed.

  4. The public has the greatest stake in ensuring that their recreational and drinking waters are safe, and public awareness is high.

  5. Although awareness is high, knowledgeability is low. Media reports about water tend to be simplistic, sensationalist, and often misleading.

  6. The public forms its opinions based on subjective personal experience plus faulty media reports, yet government policies often are formulated in deference to these opinions.

  7. The most reliable and unbiased way to determine whether a body of water is polluted is to monitor for many quality parameters, over a long period, using reliable test methods.

  8. Current tests are too slow and imprecise to detect/differentiate changes in water quality in a timely manner.

  9. Epidemiological studies are the best way to measure public health impacts from exposure to water. Such studies have never been done for contaminants in drinking water. EPA has done these studies to establish recreational water quality standards, and uses the data to predict the rates of disease when states fail to meet these standards. However the applicability of such study results is greatest in places with conditions similar to that epidemiological study, and is less so the more conditions differ from the original study. Environmental conditions in Hawaii differ drastically from those at the EPA epidemiological study sites used to establish the recreational water quality standards.
 The Conference Design

To meet the goals of this conference, the following guidelines were adopted:
  1. Assess regulatory and non-regulatory water quality monitoring data and apply the weight of evidence/reliability of test approach to reach a scientifically- based assessment of water quality (pollutants in water). Based on the data,determine the relative safety of waters designated for drinking and recreational uses.

  2. Based on many identified problems related to sewage treatment/disposal and quality of recreational waters, one and a half days of this conference will be allotted to address issues related to contamination of recreational waters, especially in meeting the requirements of the Clean Water Act/Beach Act.

  3. Based on few identified problems related to contamination of drinking water sources, one half day of this conference will be allotted to address issues related to drinking water, especially in meeting the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
 Cooperating Agencies:
  • City and County of Honolulu: Department of Environmental Services

  • County of Kauai, Department of Water

  • Hawaii Branch of the American Water Works Association (AWWA)

  • Hawaii Water Environment Association (HWEA)

  • Honolulu Board of Water Supply (HBWS)

  • State of Hawaii, Department of Health (Clean Water Branch, Safe Drinking Water Branch)

  • USGS, Water Resources, Honolulu Office