On the County of Maui's Q& A page on Injection wells in the first question - "What is an injection well?" their answer includes the following:
"The County of Maui wastewater treatment plants and injection wells reduce the impact of human waste on the environment." They do claim that County injection wells are not the only causes of near-shore algae blooms that are smothering reef life and corals, that there are many privately owned Injection wells that also contribute, in addition to leaching of fertilizers and other runoff. However, there have been several studies claiming higher levels of Nitrogen nutrients in areas around injection wells, and at levels that would spawn the growth of more invasive algae (see "Factors influencing algal blooms on tropical reefs with an emphasis on herbivory, nutrients, and invasive species," Smith, Jennifer. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dec 2003;"Ground-Water Nutrient Fluxes to Coastal Waters in the Kihei Area, Maui, Hawaii" Hunt, CD American Geophysical Union. Vol. 87, no. 36, Sep 2006; "The Algal Blooms on South Maui: Do Nutrients Matter?" Smith, CM | Smith, JE. American Geophysical Union. Vol. 87, no. 36, Sep 2006.; "Ground-Water Nutrient Flux to Coastal Waters and Numerical Simulation of Wastewater Injection at Kihei, Maui, Hawaii," Hunt Jr., Charles D., 2007. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5283 version 1.0. for just a few examples.)
What is also disturbing is that the County was appropriated $184,000 in federal funds to implement a plan to upgrade the wells from the 1970s when it was discovered after 8 years of research that they needed some dire upgrades (see Maui Times Article - June 2, 2010 "Maalaea Injection Wells Damaging Coral Reef - But the County wants to conduct more studies") they instead hired a consultant to do more studies. According to the Maui Times article, corals in Maalaea bay were roughly 50-75% of the cover in 1993. This year healthy coral cover was measured at roughly 3%. And as far as we know, its not the County's wells that are necessarily causing the problem. It's the more than 20 privately owned injection wells, the deepest of which is only 75 feet!
Something needs to be done about our dependence on these injection wells. If there are already studies done, then we need to move to implementation of more environmentally responsible methods. Its not enough to say that our current facilities just cannot deal with the load capacity. It is also not enough to take time and federal dollars to conduct more studies when significant research by respected scientists has already occurred. Also, its important to recognize the limits that are being placed on our County systems and to take this into account when new developments are being proposed.
