Despite testing, no action yet on ocean water quality

A sterling Matthew Thayer visual captioned “Kihei’s Cove Park and surf spots off Kalama Park’s breakwall are packed with novice surfers and surf schools Thursday morning” drew my eyes (The Maui News, April 6). The article was another monthly report, more visitors, more revenue, but the visual made me again question why this location, often cited as having the most impaired water quality in the county and sometimes even the entire state, continues to draw novice surfers.

Back in 2009, we see a community advisory of a United States Geological Survey from the Department of the Interior in cooperation with the state Department of Health Clean Water Branch. Here is the link to the abstract on the USGS website: pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5253/.

Over the years, numerous entities perform water quality testing, but regardless of the results no action is taken.

So I next read, “Bacterial levels high in waters at Kanaha.” The sentence within that caught me was, “Children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are the most likely to develop illnesses or infections after coming into contact with polluted water, usually while swimming. Fortunately, while swimming-related illnesses can be unpleasant, they usually require little or no treatment and have no long-term health effects,” the Health Department said.

How cavalier. Intravenous antibiotics; days in intensive and more; wonder if that means OK if no one has died?

Mike Moran Kihei