December tests reveal high bacteria counts in rivers, streams

LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Chapter of Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force has completed water-quality sampling for December.

The values in red on the graph of sampling results exceed Hawai‘i state standards of 130 organisms per 100 milliliters for a single sample and 35 organisms per 100 milliliter for a geometric mean of five or more samples.

Typically, surf and beach sites are mostly clean. For December, all sites with the exception of Rock Quarry tested above desired bacterial counts.

Most sites at or near rivers, streams or canals, showed high bacterial counts. Waiopili Stream tested over 10,000 bacterial organisms per 100 milliliters of tested sample. Moloa‘a Stream tested above 2000 bacterial organisms per 100 milliliters of tested sample, with Waikomo, Hanama‘ulu streams, the Hanalei River and Niumalu Beach Park testing over 1000.