Water released from Waimanalo Gulch Landfill after January’s heavy rains contained needles and syringes and was contaminated enough to close beaches for days.
But an internal City of Honolulu document shows that other than higher-than-allowed levels of iron, the water was within legal limits for chemical content.
The lab results, stamped “FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY” but provided by the City and County of Honolulu in response to a Civil Beat open records request, show that water collected from five monitoring stations during the Jan. 13 discharge event contained 8.6 milligrams of iron per liter, nearly nine times the 1-milligram-per-liter standard established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The good news is that the Hawaii Department of Health, which enforces clean water standards, says high levels of iron in the water aren’t a cause for great concern.
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