Hawaii
Raw Sewage Sneaking Into West Hawaii’s Coastal Waters Threatens Coral Reefs and Public Health, Scientists Find – Inside Climate News
For generations, West Hawaii’s picturesque coastlines have been a gathering place for fishing, swimming and ceremony. But those sacred waters are also gathering something else.
Using airborne mapping, field sampling and advanced statistical analysis, researchers at Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science in Hawaii revealed that nearly half of West Hawaii’s coastline is being quietly contaminated with raw sewage.
As a result, coral reefs in bays like Hōnaunau are struggling to flourish, weakening ecosystems that people rely on for food, and harming their ability to protect coastline communities from erosion and rising sea levels. The sewage-contaminated ocean water not only threatens the environment but also exposes swimmers to E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens or parasites that sicken people.
The researchers collected water samples from 47 shoreline sites in the South Kohala, North Kona and South Kona regions. Of those sites, 42 percent had elevated levels of a bacteria that indicates sewage contamination, and the levels were high enough in nearly a quarter of the sites to threaten both the environment and human health, their study found.
“The most alarming thing was how consistently we found contamination at popular swimming sites, places where families take their kids,” said Kelly Hondula, associate research scientist at the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and lead author of the study. “Some of these sites regularly test above public-health thresholds, meaning swimming there poses a higher risk of disease.”
Cesspools and leaky septic tanks are a key reason for the water contamination, the researchers say.
Hawaii banned the creation of new cesspools in 2016, the last U.S. state to do so. But
more than 88,000 cesspools, which Hawaii’s Department of Health describes as “little more than holes in the ground,” still operate in the state. Each day, homes and businesses using this inexpensive but ineffective form of waste management discharge more than 53 million gallons of untreated sewage.
Andrea Kealoha, an assistant professor of marine biology and geochemistry at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, who wasn’t involved with the new study, notes that the use of injection wells in the state also contributes to sewage contamination in water.
“They take the wastewater, all of the wastewater, to facilities in a community, they treat that water, but they don’t really remove the nutrients or the other pollutants,” she said.
What makes the West Hawaii region so vulnerable to coastline contamination is a phenomenon known as submarine groundwater discharge. West Hawaii is built upon the young lava flows of the Hualālai and Mauna Loa volcanoes. The hardened lava, once fluid, has dried up and is filled with cracks, tubes and voids. When homes, businesses and wastewater management plants discharge wastewater into the ground from cesspools, septic tanks or injection wells, it quickly travels through the lava tubes and fractures, emerging under the coast’s tideline.
That process disperses the substances carried along with the waste. Among them is nitrogen, a nutrient that helps plants grow but in higher concentrations can harm marine ecosystems. In such conditions, it’s harder for coral reefs to reproduce and recover after incidents like bleaching.
“The nitrogen that leaks out into the ocean from groundwater contamination and into the reef system stimulates the growth of algae, the kind of algae that grows on the sea floor, like a weed. And that algae overtakes the coral,” said Greg Asner, director of Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and senior author of the study.
When that algae dies and decomposes on the coastline floor, it consumes oxygen in the water. Too much of that leaves fish and invertebrates unable to survive.
“If we continue on the pathway of not taking action, not improving water quality, we’re going to see more ecosystem loss,” said Jasmine Fournier, executive director of the Ocean Sewage Alliance, which aims to reduce the waste contamination problem. “The things we expect when we go into the water, we might not be seeing as much anymore. We’ll see more algal blooms, more fish kills, fishermen who can no longer maintain their livelihoods because the fish stocks are gone.”
A 2017 law requires all cesspools to be converted to more effective waste management by 2050, but Kealoha said ASU’s findings should prompt more action.
“We have such a hard time as local communities to combat the whole greater climate issue—which comes with ocean warming and ocean acidification—but we do have power to combat these local stressors,” she said.
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Jaylan Sims
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Jaylan Sims is a senior at Vanderbilt University, majoring in communication of science & technology and communication studies. An Appalachian native, Sims covers climate activism, agriculture and climate research out of Nashville. Previously, Sims covered the environment for The Nashville Banner, Minnesota Public Radio and outlets across Minnesota. Sims hosted The Vanderbilt Hustler’s VU History Podcast, earning the publication its first national audio-journalism award.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – If you grew up in Hawaii, a visit to your local Crackseed shop is likely a core childhood memory.
Let’s go holoholo to one of the oldest shops in Honolulu, Kay’s Crackseed.
Any time Lanette Mahelona of Kaneohe is in Manoa, a stop at Kay’s Crackseed is a must!
“I stop by here, and I always grab two pounds of this seedless creamy ume because it’s hard to find on our end of the island, Kaneohe,” said Mahelona.
Kay’s Crackseed sits in a four-hundred-square-foot shop at Manoa Marketplace.
The original owner, Kay, opened the shop in 1978 and ran it for 18 years.
Mei Chang now runs the shop. Her family took it over in 1996. They’ve been selling an assortment of crack seed and products, which Mei says is a healthy snack in the eyes of the Chinese.
“Yeah, so like the ginger, the Chinese always say it’s Chinese medicine, so they help your motion sickness, the stomach, and even the kumquat,” said Chang. “It’s like honey lime ball, if you catch a cold, sore throat, they help a lot.”
Customers are encouraged to sample the different treats.
Now working in a crack seed shop isn’t anything new for Chang.
She said these kinds of shops are in common in Taiwan that her grandparents used to sell different kinds of li hing mui.
Chang lived right above her grandparents’ shop and was in the second grade when she started helping them with the business.
“Every day when I finish school first thing open a jar,” said Chang. “I really like the football seed, so every day I eat a football seed for my snack.”
And talk about a full circle moment, her daughter would also help around the Manoa shop.
Through Kay’s Crackseed, Chang hopes to carry on traditional recipes she learned from her grandparents.
“Crack seed for us is not only the snack, but it’s like childhood memory, yeah, the happiness, so we try to keep doing the tradition. So, all the juice we make here is from our grandpa and grandma’s recipe,” said Chang. “So, a special yeah, secret sauce, so we have some customers that live far away, the other side of the island, drive so far to come here to get the li hing one. The wet li hing mui, the rock salt palm, is really popular.”
“The li hing mui ones are not as sweet, sweet as other places, and it’s soft,” said Crystal Kaluna of Kauai.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Kolekole Pass is officially allowed to be used as an evacuation route in the event of an emergency on West Oahu.
U.S. military and civilian officials signed an updated official memorandum of understanding Wednesday, opening Kolekole Pass for emergency use.
The first document was signed just prior to July 29, 2025, when Hawaii faced a tsunami warning, and the pass was opened for West Oahu residents to evacuate.
Nearly 500 vehicles made their way through the pass that day as many evacuated the Leeward Coast, officials said.
Maj. Gen. James Batholomees, U.S. Army Commander, Hawaii, was joined by his counterparts from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the state Department of Transportation officers for Wednesday’s signing.
Batholomees said he took command the day before the tsunami warning.
“The next day, the first order that I had the blessing of giving was in conjunction with the Navy opening the pass during the tsunami,” he said.
Kupuna from the Leeward Coast also attended the signing, saying they were happy for a much-needed secondary route in the event that Farrington Highway is shut down.
Leeward Coast resident William Aila recalled when Farrington Highway was closed for 11 days due to Hurricane Iwa in 1982.
“We need an opportunity to bring in first aid, to bring in food, and to bring in other emergency supplies,” said Aila.
Officials say they are committed to conducting a mass evacuation rehearsal using Kolekole Pass every year.
Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, said it’s the key to a successful activation to use the route.
“The road is safe,” said Sniffen. “When we rode through this, and we did this twice with large operations, the road is safe.”
He added, “That being said, there are improvements that we still want to make.”
HDOT continues to work with the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy on upgrading the roadway, which may total $20 million in improvements.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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