Hawaii officials reopen Waikiki beach after sewage spill

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and officials from the state and city announced Wednesday that Waikiki beaches and Ala Moana Beach Park are now reopen after the previous days’ cautionary closures due to storm runoff and the sewage spill.

“We will still do additional testing and monitoring in those areas”, Kawaoka said.

“We recognize-both at the state and county level-in terms of our economy there’s nothing more important than Waikiki”, he said.

But samples taken from Ala Wai Harbor and Kewalo Basin waters “are still impaired, so and warning signs within each harbor along the harbor entrances will still remain”. The Department of Health issued warnings for people to stay out of the water in all affected areas, including Kaneohe and Mamala bays, though no signs were posted.

Hawaii state Department of Health deputy director Keith Kawaoka speaks during a news conference in Honolulu on Wednesday, August 26, 2015.

Heavy rains on Oahu produced flooding Monday morning and caused what city officials Wednesday described as a almost 150,000-gallon wastewater spill that contained sewer overflow and poured into storm drains leading directly to the ocean. Another 264,000 spilled on land but never reached the ocean.

He says the department is authorizing Honolulu to remove warning signs from Waikiki and Ala Moana beaches.

Kahikina expressed regret that various city departments hadn’t better communicated to ensure both pumping station were operational.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell points to the flange area of a pump station that was the cause of major sewage spill. Stretches of Waikiki’s white sands and blue waters were deserted Tuesday after officials warned that heavy rains triggered a half-million-gallon sewage spill near Hawaii’s world-famous tourist district.

A new tropical storm, Ignacio, formed east of the Hawaiian Islands on Tuesday and is forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday, Central Pacific Hurricane Center Meteorologist Chevy Chevalier said.