You Can Now Keep Track of Water-Quality Conditions at Hawai‘i Beaches
New state website provides up-to-date information on water-quality conditions at beaches.
Beachgoers can now monitor water-quality conditions across the Islands from their home or phone thanks to a new state website launched in November.
The website features up-to-date information on beach conditions, including all active advisories, aerial photos, maps that show details on specific advisories, and updates on elevated bacteria levels and sewage spills. Users can also sign up for email notifications.
Photo: Courtesy of hawai‘i health department
“People had no idea how to find out about water quality and where to go,” says Stuart Coleman, Hawaiian Islands manager for the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to protect beaches. The group worked with the state Department of Health to develop the website. “Now they can see it visually and look at their local beach. It’s much easier to understand.”
The website is part of an upgrade to a more comprehensive system that allows staff to quickly update advisories.
The Health Department received a $265,000 grant this year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to operate the program as part of a federal act that called for establishing national standard criteria for coastal water monitoring and public notification.
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