Announcements

Our Coastal Water Quality Report is here!!!

5/31/2019

Click on the Report Photo to access Hui O Ka Wai Ola's Coastal Water Quality Report (2016 to 2018)! This report shares our mission, methods, findings, next steps, and most importantly, our thanks for all the ways the Maui community, donors, and funders have helped bring our partnership this far. We are seeing some compelling findings that will help address sources of pollution and poor water quality along Maui's coastline so the quality of life for people and nature may improve and persist. Want to learn more? Check out our report!

Hui O Ka Wai Ola is the  Recipient of Funds Raised at September Meeting of  “100+ Women Who Care – Maui”

10/12/2018

Michelle Griffoul, a volunteer with the Hui O Ka Wai Ola water quality testing program and board member of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, beams after learning that the water quality testing program would receive the donations collected at the September meeting of 100+ Women Who Care - Maui.

Hui O Ka Wai Ola was awarded $12,500 in funds raised at the September 2018 meeting of “100+ Women Who Care – Maui,” a group that holds quarterly meetings to raise funds for local nonprofits, charities and causes.

According to the 100+ Women Who Care – Maui website, the group’s members meet four times each year, with each meeting lasting one hour. Each member (and their guest) brings a check for $100 or more. Any member can nominate local charities, non-profits, or worthy causes, whose names are put into a hat. Three names are drawn at random. The group then votes by secret ballot to choose one of the organizations or causes to support, with a collective donation that typically amounts to $10,000 or more.

Michelle Griffoul, a member of 100+ Women Who Care – Maui and a board member of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, nominated the organization’s Hui O Ka Wai Ola (Association of Living Waters) ocean water quality testing program. She spoke from the heart about her firsthand experience as a volunteer with this innovative monitoring program, which works with dozens of local volunteers to regularly test ocean water quality at 39 locations along the south and west coastlines of Maui.

The members voted by secret ballot and selected Maui Nui Marine Resource Council as the recipient of the funds raised at the meeting.

“We’re grateful to all of the community-minded women in this group who chose to support our Hui O Ka Wai Ola water quality testing program,” says Robin Newbold, MNMRC co-founder and chair. “Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is proud to be a co-manager of this unique program and we are grateful for all in our community who make it possible. Clean ocean water is essential for healthy coral reefs. It’s also important to visitors and residents who enjoy swimming, snorkeling, diving, paddling, fishing and surfing along Maui’s coasts,” said Newbold. “Our ocean water quality testing program and the data it generates is critical in our work for clean ocean water for Maui.”  

 To learn more about 100 Women Who Care – Maui, please visit https://100womenwhocaremaui.org

Watch a Hui O Ka Wai Ola Webinar hosted by the Reef Resilience Network!

6/29/2018

A recording is available from the June 20th Reef Resilience Webinar hosting the good work of Hui O Ka Wai Ola! Check it out at: http://www.reefresilience.org/upcoming-citizen-science-to-improve-hawaii-water-quality/

Update to Hui O Ka Wai Ola and DOH sample sites!

6/25/2018

The Hawai'i Department of Health (DOH) has monitored 18 Tier 1 sites weekly for basic water quality parameters and bacteria since the end of 2017. Some of these sites have also been monitored by Hui O Ka Wai Ola, who collected additional nutrient data (nitrogen and phosphorus compounds) along with turbidity and other basic physical parameters. DOH is now collecting all of the parameters that Hui O Ka Wai Ola collects and more (Enterococcus, Clostridium and Chlorophyll A) at these 18 DOH Tier 1 sites!

This allows Hui O Ka Wai Ola to discontinue monitoring at the following 8 DOH Tier 1 sites, since our efforts are no longer needed:

Launiupoko Beach Park
Airport (Kahekili) Beach
DT Fleming Beach Park
Mile Marker 14
Kama'ole Beach I
Kama'ole Beach III
Wailea Beach
Mākena Beach Shoreline

Volunteer Jim collecting a sample at Launiupoko. Photo: Bruce Forrester

The Hui can now look to adopt additional sites elsewhere, or utilize this excess effort to expand our program in other ways. You can see updates to our monitoring locations on our Data Page. The Hui will continue to monitor two Tier 1 sites to use as Quality Assurance for our nutrient data, but this will only be for a short time until we determine that our results are in line with DOH results:

Hanaka'ō'ō (Canoe Beach)
Cove Park

Kudos to the DOH for almost doubling the number of Tier 1 sites on Maui from 10 to 18 in the last year. The addition of nutrient parameters to the Tier 1 sites is incredibly beneficial for all the environmental work being done on the island of Maui by watershed partnerships. This incredible effort and dedication to gathering comprehensive and quality assured data for Maui's beach goers and marine life by the DOH is greatly appreciated! To view DOH's data, please visit: cwb.doh.hawaii.gov/CleanWaterBranch/WaterQualityData/default.aspx.

A New Cohort of Water Quality Monitors!

2/19/2018

A volunteer training was held on February 12 and 13 for 12 new volunteers to join the Clean Ocean Team and monitor water quality with Hui O Ka Wai Ola! Volunteers completed the 12-hour training using State Department of Health approved techniques and protocols for water quality monitoring under the QAPP. Of the new volunteers, most will help expand the monitoring effort in South Maui. Congratulations and mahalo to our new team members!
Photos: Bruce Forrester

Hui O Ka Wai Ola Featured in the National Water Quality Monitoring Council's Fall Newsletter!

2/1/2018

The National Water Quality Monitoring Council was created in 1997 as a vehicle for bringing together diverse expertise needed to develop collaborative, comparable, and cost-effective approaches for monitoring and assessing our Nation’s water quality. Hui O Ka Wai Ola is featured in their Fall 2017 newsletter on page 13 - check it out!

Pictured: Volunteers Ty Freiberg and Marie Schroeder demonstrate how to filter samples for nutrient analysis in west Maui.

Expanding again: Water quality testing program to add 12 more South Maui sites

1/31/2018

Volunteers collecting coastal water quality nutrient samples at our new South Maui sites!

Last November, our Hui O Ka Wai Ola ocean water quality testing program expanded to include 12 South Maui shoreline locations. We're expanding AGAIN in February to add another 12 sites. This brings the total to 24 locations in South Maui. These new sites will be tested every two weeks for six months, then every three weeks thereafter. New volunteers will be participating in a training program on February 12 and 13. We have 12 new volunteers signed up, with room for 16 volunteers total. In all, Hui O Ka Wai Ola will be testing a total of 48 locations in West and South Maui by the end of February. Hui O Ka Wai Ola (Association of Living Waters) is a partnership of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, The Nature Conservancy, West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative and University of Hawaii Maui College in collaboration with the State of Hawai'i Department of Health.

Water Quality Testing Program Expands to South Maui!

11/25/2017

Exciting news! Our volunteer-based water quality testing program, Hui O Ka Wai Ola (Association of the Living Waters), expanded on November 7 to include 12 South Maui shoreline locations. We'll be expanding it again soon to include a total of 24 locations in South Maui. These new sites will be tested every two weeks for six months, then every three weeks thereafter.

The Hui O Ka Wai Ola water quality testing program began in West Maui in June of 2016 under the supervision of Dana Reed, Chair of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council's Clean Water Committee, with support from Maui County’s Office of Economic Development (OED) and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). In West Maui, volunteers and their team leaders currently test 24 shoreline locations from the Pali to Honolua Bay with support from NFWF and the North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund.

Sofia de la Sota, Hui O Ka Wai Ola South Maui Regional Coordinator and Team Leader, prepares testing kits with Dana Reed, Chair of MNMRC's Clean Water Committee and West Maui Regional Coordinator of Hui O Ka Wai Ola.

Hui O Ka Wai Ola is a partnership of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council (MNMRC), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), West Maui Ridge to Reef (R2R) Initiative and University of Hawaii Maui College in collaboration with the State of Hawaii Department of Health (DOH).

Hui O Ka Wai Ola is the first community-based water quality monitoring program in the State that periodically measures turbidity (a measure of water clarity) and nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorous) in near shore ocean waters and makes this data available to the public. "Our goal is to support the Department of Health and Maui County efforts to improve coastal water quality so that coral reefs and native fish populations thrive, and our residents and visitors are safe,” said Robin Newbold, Co-founder and Chair of MNMRC. “We want to help identify problem areas, so remedial action may be taken as needed.”

To fund the expansion to South Maui, MNMRC worked with TNC and R2R to obtain a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant. The grant provides matching funds to an award from Maui County OED. With this funding, the program was able to purchase water quality testing equipment and supplies and hired Sofia de la Sota as the new South Maui Regional Coordinator for Hui O Ka Wai Ola. North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund, Napili Bay and Beach Foundation and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provide funding for the West Maui program.

Listen to a recent interview with Dana Reed about the expansion of Hui O Ka Wai Ola
on HPR's The Conversation.

South Maui Gets Its Water Quality Lab

9/26/2017

On the morning of Tuesday, September 19th, Hui O Ka Wai Ola coordinators Dana Reed and Sofia de la Sota met in Kihei to set up the much anticipated South Maui water quality lab at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Armloads of boxes containing various equipment and supplies were hauled into the donated lab space. By the end of the day the coordinators had organized the space, water was distilling, batteries were charging, and meters and probes had been calibrated. With phase one of the lab now in place, training completed, and initial sites selected, the volunteers are ready to begin monitoring coastal water quality in South Maui!

New Water Quality Heroes for South Maui

8/15/2017

The newest group of Hui O Ka Wai Ola water quality volunteers is ready to start monitoring in South Maui. This month, 23 new volunteers completed the 12 hour training in the State Department of Health approved technique and protocols for water quality monitoring. Of the new volunteers, 17 will launch the monitoring program in South Maui, and 6 will join the existing West Maui team. The expansion to South Maui follows the successful completion of the monitoring program's first year in West Maui, with over 476 samples collected to date. The South Maui group plans to begin collecting samples in September. Below are some of the things new volunteers had to say when asked if they liked the recent training: