Stay out of brown water

LIHUE — Though a fresh brown water advisory hasn’t been issued for the Koloa Landing and Kukui’ula Small Boat Harbor areas by the Department of Health, people are advised to stay out of the water.

In fact, the dark plumes of stormwater runoff in the two areas resulting from heavy rains Monday night and Tuesday are just adding to already muddy and potentially contaminated conditions.

There is a brown water advisory in effect for the waters off of Koloa Landing on the south side.

The advisory has been in effect since Aug. 31 due to stormwater runoff caused ongoing heavy rains Kauai has been experiencing, said Anna Koethe, spokeswoman for DOH.

Wailua Beach garnered its own brown water advisory Tuesday as a low pressure system moving through put Kauai and Niihau under a flash flood watch through Tuesday night.

Tuesday morning, Kauai resident Scott Valor sent photos into The Garden Island newspaper of the Kukui’ula Small Boat Harbor and of Koloa Landing, showing heavy stormwater and brown water plumes in both locations.

“Fourth time this year,” Valor wrote in the email. “Lots of rain!”

Overnight between Monday and Tuesday, Poipu recorded the most rain at 3.33 inches within the 12-hour period ending at 9 a.m. Omao totaled 2.58 inches of rain at that time and Port Allen recorded 2.12 inches.

Wailua Ditch recorded 2.25 inches in that time period, and is the only place on the island with a Department of Health brown water advisory in place.

That brown water advisories advise the public to stay out of floodwaters and storm water runoff.