Old-time paddlers remember when Kahului Harbor was so polluted with cannery runoff and other pollution that some had to quit the sport because of constant infections.
Thankfully, with the cessation of most dumping in Kahului Harbor, this problem has gone away.
Recently though, there has been an upswing in paddler infections. In the last year 5 out of 23 paddler friends have all gotten staph infections on their legs and feet (the areas most exposed to the water during paddling). These were mostly paddlers outside of Kahului Harbor near the Sewage Plant.
This anecdotal information could point to a problem with the injection of treated wastewater. It could be from cruise ship sewage. Or it could be a result of the cumulative load of both sources.
Whatever the cause, Maui needs water and there are vast fields of cane using irrigation water only a mile from the Sewage Treatment Plant which could use the water that is now being injected into the waste wells.
So it simply does not make sense to spend more money creating new injection wells — especially since the EPA has given indications that it may move to shut down all Maui injection wells.
Please join us in requesting that the County reconsider spending more money on a dubious solution to our waste water problem.