Blue Water Task Force
Featured Data
2025 Hawaiʻi Water Quality Report
The 2025 Hawaiʻi Water Quality Report provides a statewide snapshot of coastal water quality conditions across Kauaʻi, Maui, and Oʻahu through Surfrider Foundation’s Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) program — the nation’s largest volunteer-run beach water testing network. In 2025, trained volunteers collected 1,138 water samples at 90 sites statewide, helping fill critical gaps in Hawaiʻi Department of Health beach monitoring by testing local beaches, surf breaks, stream mouths, and recreational areas often left unmonitored.
The report highlights statewide water quality trends, Hawaiʻi beach bacteria hot spots, and ongoing clean water advocacy efforts addressing cesspool pollution, wastewater treatment plant discharges, and watershed health. It also features nature-based solutions and community stewardship projects working to improve water quality from mauka to makai, while providing public health guidance to help ocean users recreate more safely at the beach.
Featured Data
Kauaʻi study indicates human sewage in streams
The Kauaʻi BWTF tested 24 streams, four times each, for both enterococcus and sucralose, an artificial sweetener used to indicate the presence of human sewage in waterways. All streams tested yielded bacteria counts that exceed the state health criteria for fecal indicator bacteria, while sucralose was detected in 19 of 24 streams tested. Sucralose was detected in at least 50% of the samples collected in 14 streams, indicating that these streams are contaminated with human sewage.
