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If our water is so clean, why would the EPA require us to start disinfecting waste water to prevent it from contaminating the aquifer??
Maui County To Fully Disinfect All Waste Water At The Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility - Hawaii's News By Hawaii's People - Heluhelu.Com (http://heluhelu.com/2011/08/17/maui-county-to-fully-disinfect-all-waste-water-at-the-lahaina-wastewater-reclamation-facility/ - broken link)
BTW, one reason I don't trust the water is because I work for the county.
I've been trying to get some data from the public works department, and they've completely ignored me, because they value secrecy and will keep public information from you if they can help it. They're self-serving bureaucrats, not public servants.
Not sure about Maui, but it's probably similar to Kaua'i: all our water is pumped from the aquifer (or fresh water lens) under the island. Rainwater filtered through the lava rock. However, I heard they're trying to put surface water into the system (after proper filtration of course). Pretty good water as far as I'm concerned. They put minimal chlorine in, and no fluoride I think, but can't remember for sure. Every water provider has to publish (by request or freely) their water quality results, which also includes their water treatment process. But as winkosmosis says, it depends on pipes, both the city's and yours.
For what it's worth, my wife prefers the filtered water you buy in 5 gallon jugs from machines (guess who has to fill them and carry them ?). It costs 40 c/gal for the cheap looking machines, 50c/gal for the fancy ones where you see all the big filters behind the machine.
Not sure about Maui, but it's probably similar to Kaua'i: all our water is pumped from the aquifer (or fresh water lens) under the island. Rainwater filtered through the lava rock. However, I heard they're trying to put surface water into the system (after proper filtration of course). Pretty good water as far as I'm concerned. They put minimal chlorine in, and no fluoride I think, but can't remember for sure. Every water provider has to publish (by request or freely) their water quality results, which also includes their water treatment process. But as winkosmosis says, it depends on pipes, both the city's and yours.
For what it's worth, my wife prefers the filtered water you buy in 5 gallon jugs from machines (guess who has to fill them and carry them ?). It costs 40 c/gal for the cheap looking machines, 50c/gal for the fancy ones where you see all the big filters behind the machine.
It's just filtered water. At best it's reverse osmosis purified. Maybe you should invest in a reverse osmosis filter for your house
I'm pretty sure all the water vending machines say Reverse Osmosis on them here (not always sure of what's inside, which is why the fancy ones became popular).
Home RO filters are $100-150, plus filter replacement. From wikipedia: "Household reverse osmosis units use a lot of water because they have low back pressure. [...] An RO unit delivering 5 gallons of treated water per day may discharge 40 to 90 gallons of wastewater per day." I guess I could use it on the plants because the minerals won't be too concentrated, but still hard to plumb. Though I do get tired of carrying those 40lb bottles around.
Before we did the water machines, we did have a stage 3 under-sink filter that was supposed to remove any lead. Never know it these old houses.
Actually, the Maui County Water Quality Report is mailed out as a booklet each year, and is available online as well.
General pamphlet Maui County, HI - Official Website - General Information
On the left side of your screen you will see links to the specific report for each area on Maui.
For example, here is the Wailuku report as PDF:
http://co.maui.hi.us/documents/Water/Water%20Quality/Wailuku10.PDF (broken link)
As with anywhere, the County can't test for the lead in YOUR water that might be due to YOUR pipes. They can only test the water before it gets to your house. (Well, they can test your water, but there is a fee and that's reasonable) If you live in a home that is really old, and/or one who's plumbing may not have been done to code, it's worth having your water tested for lead. But that's not a Maui County water problem, that's just like having lead paint or asbestos in the house... something that used to be acceptable changed decades ago, but not every structure has been corrected.
Other contaminations, such as E. coli can exist from plumbing with improper backflow regulators. Again, this is not necessarily a county-wide water problem, this is often a problem with a bad individual system. Sure, there are times when there can be a problem in a defined area. For example, a huge storm can cause extreme flooding which can overwhelm the county systems and cause a potential problem with contamination. The county then issues a warning for that area until the problem subsides. That's actually what we want... the people in the know, telling us of a problem, so we can take temporary measures such as boiling the water. But this happens in a lot of places where a storm can mess up the system. Just deal with it.
As an analyst for the Maui DWS Water Quality Lab, I've performed chemical and microbiological tests on Maui County's water for 20 years, so I know what's in the water ... and I have absolutely no hesitation drinking it. The only treatment process I use is an in fridge filter that takes out much of the chlorine and its chemical taste. The fridge door water dispenser also provides a cooled stream that improves the taste. Most of Maui's water come from wells up to 1500 feet deep ... enough to filter out all protozoa, bacteria and even viruses. Most of UpCountry Maui's water come from surface sources that is treated with microfiltration that removes particulate down to 0.1 micron, tiny enough to remove bacteria. The County tends to go heavy on the chlorine disinfection as a health precaution, though the dosage is less than a quarter of the maximum amount allowed by the EPA.
A word of advice to people who use point of use filters that are often attached to the end of faucets, replace the elements as directed or even sooner because Hawaii's climate is conducive to bacterial growth. I once responded to a family complaining of stomach problems who hadn't changed their filter for several months and detected 10,000+ organisms per millilitre (~1/4 tsp), which is a lot! That's why I prefer using a filter that is inside the refrigerator to reduce bacterial growth. If your refrigerator doesn't have this feature, you might think of using a Brita Pitcher, or something like it, and store it in the Fridge.
All in all, Maui's isolated location and excellent treatment processes produces safe drinking water. And I'm not being paid to provide this information because I'm retired!
Last edited by Fohpono; 05-10-2015 at 10:24 PM..
Reason: Added a disclaimer sentence.
I lived on Maui for many years and the boil water alerts were a regular part of life. Much of the time we found out about "issues" with the water through the coconut wireless because they wouldn't want to worry the tourist.
Small kid time when they came out with the bottled water concept it just seemed so silly to think that folks would pay for water in a bottle when it came from the tap for free. Guess those days are long gone. But Hawaii has some pretty good water, IMHO. I generally prefer tap water to bottled water, it tastes better and I'd much rather trust pipes than plastic bottles, although, more than likely it's all plastic by now, anyway.
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