Water Environment & Technology: Turning The Tide

‘Honu Hub’ takes on Hawaii’s 200-million-L-per-day cesspool problem - Around 10 million tourists visit the Hawaiian Islands each year, consistently topping charts of the world’s most popular vacation destinations. Sporting pristine beaches, stunning volcanoes, and iconic cultural attractions, motivations for visiting the “Paradise of the Pacific” are many, but lurking beneath the surface is a pernicious problem that betrays Hawaii’s natural beauty. Hawaii is home to the highest per-capita concentration of cesspools in the United States, numbering more than 80,000, according to the Hawaii Department of Health (HDoH). These simple, underground pits store untreated household wastewater and allow it to seep directly into the surrounding soil. HDoH estimates that roughly half of these cesspools sit in areas where they pose a high risk to the state’s trademark, crystalclear waters, endangering fragile ecosystems like coves and coral reefs. All told, Hawaii’s cesspools release….. Read the full article.