[Coral-List] massive coral die off in Kauai, Hawaii

[GlennPatton]

As I said in my earlier post, "it's hard for coral reefs to flourish in a
toilet bowl".  

I didn't get much response from the list about this issue, but I believe
it's the major issue that needs to be solved in order for coral reefs to
flourish.

Specific to Kauai, in my opinion, there are numerous problems related to
wastewater.

"Water unsafe at Kikiaola boat harbor" Dec-2010  
http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/article_43444712-0817-11e0-bcc4-001cc4
c03286.html
I doubt things haven't changed much since this article.

Take a look at Kauai using Google Earth.  You'll see that there's a
significant agricultural industry on the island producing mostly sugarcane
probably.  And you can see the runoff from the rivers and plumes of dark
water at the mouth of these rivers running into the ocean.  I'm sure the
runoff contains significant amounts of pesticides and is heavily laden with
fertilizer nutrients.  It's no wonder why the reefs suffer.

I have been SCUBA diving some of the reefs of Kauai.  The reefs are very
close to shore.  I would say the reefs are within a half a mile of shore
because the island drops off quickly into a very deep blue water.  BTW,
there are a lot of "Frog fish" on these reefs.

Honolulu weekly  -  article about "Sewage Study"  May 16, 2012
http://honoluluweekly.com/diary/2012/05/sewage-study/
according to the article.  Honolulu, Oahu had been exempt from having to do
secondary treatment of their wastewater.

"Oahu's four main outfalls are off of Sand Island, Mokapu, Barber's Point
and Waianae. In 20 years of research, "We've never been able to determine
any negative effects on the life around the outfalls," says Philip Moravcik,
technology transfer specialist for UH-WRRC."

I doubt if Kauai, as a higher standard for wastewater treatment than a Oahu.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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As a follow-up to my original post "it's hard for coral reefs to flourish in
a toilet bowl".  Here's a video you might want to take a look at: 
http://youtu.be/SHzaEGYLyEI

Florida's Chapter 2008-232, which mandates the elimination of the South
Florida wastewater outfalls by 2018 is great, but I doubt the State of
Florida will meet this deadline.  Check out this video, which illustrates
the magnitude of the problem:

www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wastewater/docs/ocean-outfall-2010.pdf

The most amazing part of this video is Miami-Dade's mayor asked the State of
Florida not to implement this law eliminate these outfalls because it may
raise everybody's water bill by 20 bucks.

Best Regards
 
Glenn Patton
305-741-7483 home/office
305-281-0101 mobile
www.glennpatton.com


-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Rudy Bonn
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 1:10 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] massive coral die off in Kauai, Hawaii

Bastian, you may be referring to the work done by Jim Porter and others,
where they found a link between white pox, which decimated the elkhorn coral
populations in the Keys, to a bacterium found in the human intestinal tract,
the bacterium was present in the influent waters at the treatment facility
but not present in the effluent.  Stormwater runoff is a big problem in the
keys, key west alone has over 970 storm drains, where the water drains
directly to the ocean, I dont know what kind of sewage treatment
infrastructure is on Kauai, but yes I would think it certainly is a
possibility   good luck,   Rudy  

we also have a problem with septic systems in the keys as well, old and
leaking,  




Rudy S Bonn
Director of Marine Projects
Reef Relief
631 Greene Street
Key West, FL 33040
305-294-3100

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