Keep pollution out of Hawai‘i’s coral reefs

The county claimed it didn’t need a permit to pollute the water because it was discharging pollution underground into groundwater — rather than directly to the Hā‘enanui reef — even though the county knew the injected wastewater would end up in the ocean.

Over the next eight years, the case worked its way up to the Supreme Court, where it became a broader question about how the Clean Water Act should be interpreted. We won — the Supreme Court affirmed that the county couldn’t get away with polluting the ocean just because it wasn’t doing so directly.

Following this win, the case worked its way back to the Hawai‘i Federal District Court, which applied the Supreme Court ruling to the question that started it all — ultimately concluding that Maui County must secure a Clean Water Act permit for its Lahaina discharges. The Hawai‘i State Department of Health has now drafted a permit in response to the court rulings.

This particular permit will be the first of its kind in Hawai‘i to regulate ocean pollution through underground injection wells, which are used throughout the islands for wastewater disposal. We need your help to ensure this precedent-setting permit is the best it can be.

This is not a problem we can leave unaddressed. The treated wastewater has high levels of nutrients and freshwater that destroy coral reef ecosystems by eroding corals from the inside out and blanketing them with harmful algae. The waters of Hā‘enanui moreover provide important feeding areas for the critically endangered honu ‘ea (hawksbill sea turtle). Honu ‘ea depend on healthy coral reefs for food. The shoreline also provides resting areas for ‘īlio holo i ka uaua (Hawaiian monk seal), one of the most endangered seal species in the world.

Since this permit is the first of its kind in Hawai‘i, we need to make sure that the regulators know that the public backs the strongest possible clean water protections. Tell the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health to clean up our water.