Why the commercial boating industry is killing our ocean

- By Cheryl Ambrozic-Mooz

Dennis Fitzpatrick is an avid kayaker who enjoys spending his mornings gliding through the ocean off South Maui . But lately, he's noticed that his paddles are cutting through more than just water. Navigating past the popular snorkel spots, Fitzpatrick says his kayak often moves through a brown, frothy, plume of floating waste .

What Fitzpatrick is encountering is a careless trail of raw sewage left behind by the large tour boats. That's right-when their tanks are full, the tour boats simply empty them out as they're sailing along, dumping huge amounts of toxics and sludge into the waters around Maui .

For the last six years, Fitzpatrick has been passionate in his fight to stop this practice. He's met with Mayor Alan Arakawa, testified before the State Senate Ways and Means Committee, written to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and asked U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka for help.

"I'm tired of the lack of action taken by the state and the lack of responsibility taken by the tour boat companies, especially when feasible solutions are immediately available," Fitzpatrick told me. Fitzpatrick thought that his efforts were finally paying off when he heard that the state was going to build a pump-out facility at Ma'alaea Harbor. Such a facility would allow tour boats to empty their waste tanks into the harbor infrastructure, rather than the ocean.

Unfortunately, the process entails designing plans, getting community input, securing bids and money and, ultimately, actually doing the job. Officials say that will take two, possibly three more years.

And that's considered the "fast track."

Richard Rice, Administrator for the Department of Boating and Recreation (DOBAR), says the problem has been getting the state to prioritize the funding to improve Maui 's fifty-year-old-small boat harbors. Senator Inouye has appropriated the money for the improvements of the harbors infrastructure and DLNR engineers are currently in the design process.

"Eventually, when the upgrades to the current wastewater system are in place, Ma'alaea harbor will have pump out facilities," said Rice. But until those upgrades are made, commercial tour boats using the harbor will continue dumping their waste in the ocean.

Hawaii 's marine ecosystem depends on clean water. It's susceptible to damage from the continuous dumping of a raw sewage, which oozes with pharmaceuticals, hormones and chemical contaminants. A clean, healthy ocean is vital to Maui's economy and Maui 's future. We cannot survive without it.

Despite the fact that the sewage being dumped by tour boats contains all sorts of toxics like formaldehyde, ammonium chloride and zinc sulfate, the boats aren't doing anything illegal. U.S. maritime laws make clear that as long as they're three miles or more off shore, vessels can release waste. Snorkel boats traveling between Ma'alaea and Molokini routinely exceed that distance.

Dr. Lou Herman, the Director of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory and the Dolphin Institute believes that untreated human sewage is seriously damaging the fragile Hawaiian marine environment.

"While the humpback whales don't feed while they're in Hawaiian waters, many other mammals such as six other species of whales and the spinner, spotted and stripped dolphins and pilot whales are feeding in these waters all year long," he said. "The pollution will make its way up the food chain and since dolphins are at the top of the chain, they are susceptible to high concentrations of it."

June Harrigan-Lum, manager of the Environmental Planning Office at the Department of Health sees things differently. In fact, she told me that dumped sewage that distance out wouldn't harm sea life. "Taking into consideration the distance, currents, and tides, any macerated sewage dumped three miles from shore will eventually become diluted," she said. If tour boats dump in the channel where currents are steady, then Harrigan-Lum is probably right. But the waters are much calmer in the zone that's at least three miles from Maui, Kaho'olawe and Lanai where the snorkel and whale watch boats dump their waste. In fact, they could trap discharges for days or weeks.

That area is also part of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. It's a nursery and breeding ground for marine mammals and fragile reef ecosystems. And that's got members of the Sanctuary Advisory Council concerned.

"Sewage is comprised essentially of macerated human waste mixed with deodorizing and sanitizing chemicals," they wrote to Governor Linda Lingle on September 30, 2003. "Because marine heads use less liquid per flush that land-based toilets, the human waste matter is highly concentrated. It is unlike the effluent from our land-based primary sewage treatment facilities [from which solids are removed].

Because the waste the tour vessels are releasing is so concentrated, Marine Sanctuary officials want a precautionary approach to dumping.

"If a mammal surfaces in that dumping area within the first hour of the waste being released, it would be swimming through a highly concentrated mix of sewage and chemicals," said Jeff Walters, who co-manages the Marine Sanctuary.

Sewage contamination is measured in terms of fecal coliforms-bacteria produced in the intestines of all warm-blooded animals. Sewage contamination is a health threat because increased levels of fecal coliform contamination can cause illness such as hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis and staphylococcus.

Twice a week, Roland Asakura-an Environmental Health Specialist with the state Department of Health (DOH) Clean Water Branch-takes near-shore samples of Maui's most heavily used beach areas to determine the level of fecal contamination. While Asakura tests nine water samples from places like Lipoa St. , Kanaha, Ma'alaea, and Wailea-he doesn't test anywhere near Makena, where residents have seen many sewage plumes.

Asakura said the water the tested areas is "pretty clean." The reason is that the samples he takes average between three and five bacteria colonies per 100 milliliters. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard, anything above 33 colonies per 100 milliliters of water would be high.

But others aren't ready to say there's no problem with dumping sewage in the ocean.

"Any dumping of anything that wasn't there before has some effect on the marine environment, at least at the microenvironment [level]," said Captain Jim Coon of Trilogy. "I will rejoice when we have adequate pump out facilities in all our harbors."

State Health Adviser Dr. Lorren Paing is also concerned, mainly about the increasing capacity of newer, larger, commercial tour boats now replacing the current boats at the harbors. "The sewage pollution in our recreational waters is only going to increase as these larger boats take on more people. This means greater amounts of sewage being dumped and a greater chance of a serious outbreak."

The Pacific Whale Foundation (PWC) has spent the last three years pushing for a wastewater pump-out facility at Ma'alaea Harbor. Anne Rillero, PWC's Director of Marketing and Public Relations, testified on the matter before the Lingle's Maui Advisory Committee on February 26, 2004.

"Here on Maui each year, about one million passengers-excluding those from cruise ships-go boating from Lahaina and Ma'alaea harbors," she said. "If just 20 percent of those passengers use the toilets on the boats, at two gallons per flush, that's 400,000 gallons of effluent being dumped yearly off the coast of Maui -or about 1,000 gallons per day. This is not in the best interest of the marine environment. It is just not acceptable."

The Foundation, which genuinely wants a solution to dumping, is also part of the problem. They run six boats during whale season, each carrying between 48 and 149 passengers.

But there is a stopgap option. Commercial tour boat operators could pay a septic tank firm to pump out and dispose of their boat's sewage.

Rob Parsons, the Mayor's Executive Assistant for Environmental Concerns, said the tour companies would certainly pass the increased pumping costs onto their customers. But he also said that might not adversely affect their already environmentally friendly business. "People would rather choose a tour company that's pumping, not dumping," he said.

Rillero said the PWC would consider hiring a private pump company, but were worried that the noise and smell would bother the Ma'alaea condominium owners.

"The Ma'alaea Community Association is in favor of pump outs at the harbor and opposed to dumping this waste at sea," said Robert Riebling, the Ma'alaea Community Association president. "However, if temporary pump outs were to occur under the windows and lanais of two residential apartment buildings, the noise and odor would adversely affect property values."

Of course, all this talk of private pump companies and pump-out facilities may be academic. Lahaina Harbor has a free pump-out station at the dock, but many tour boats leaving there still dump their waste outside the three-mile limit.

Boat owners I spoke with said they found the pump location inconvenient. They also said that when cruise ships are in port, their tenders block the access to the pump. In fact, one employee at the Lahaina Harbor office employee said she's only seen four of the boats ever use the pump.

At the Kihei boat ramp the dive and tour boats en route to Molokini or other South Maui destinations do not cross that three-mile legal dumping area. According to Senior Marine Inspector Lt. Robert Haggerty of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Team, the 34 and 35-foot boats with holding tanks typically run outside the three-mile boundary to dump sewage when their tanks are full. Typically.

"I'm sure there are rare cases when the vessels may illegally pump the sewage," he said. Residents and ocean enthusiasts who frolic in the water along the south Maui coastline could attest to that statement.

Right now the tour boat industry is both profiting from and spoiling Hawaii 's natural marine environment. A simple, long-term solution is simply be to make it illegal for boats to dump sewage into Hawaiian state waters and the National Marine Sanctuary. Considering the glacial-like pace of the effort to build pump-out facilities at Ma'alaea, there's no reason to believe this would happen quickly.

Yet activists like Fitzpatrick remain undeterred. Today, he spends a lot of time handing out flyers to tourists at the harbors, trying to get them to understand what's happening.

"I wish people would get their heads out of the sand," he said. "If you're concerned about what's happening, get involved and help stop it."

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