Program Initiatives ORMP MACZAC Resources

Coastal Nonpoint Source
Pollution Control (Section 6217)

The quality of its coastal waters are very important to the economy of the State of Hawaii. Problems may result from polluted runoff or nonpoint source pollution. Common NPS pollutants include soil, fertilizers, oil, litter, lawn clippings, and cesspools. The consequences of NPS pollution are water-born diseases, algae blooms, fish kills, and turbid waters. In 1990, congress enacted the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments by adding a new Section 6217 entitled Protecting Coastal Waters. It required that states with CZM programs to develop and implement coastal nonpoint pollution control programs be approved by the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Section 6217, seeks to strengthen links between federal, state, and county coastal zone management and water quality programs in order to protect coastal water quality from NPS pollution. Section 6217 requires states to submit a coastal nonpoint pollution control management plan. The purpose of the plan is to describe the programs and actions taken to control polluted runoff and maintain water quality standards.

Hawaii Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program Management Plan

The Hawaii Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program Management Plan seeks to meet the program components required under Section 6217. Click here to view this whole document or click on the following links to view each section individually (all PDF files).

Part I: Introduction
Describes Hawaii's environment, defines the program's management area, and highlights types and sources of NPS pollution in Hawaii.

Part II: Program Coordination
Outlines mechanisms for coordinating the coastal NPS pollution control program.

Part III: Management Measures for Hawaii
Describes the means of implementing the management measures for agriculture, forestry, urban, hydromodification, and marina activities, and for the protection and restoration of wetland and riparian areas.

Part IV: Critical Coastal Areas & Additional Management Measures
Summarizes the requirements for developing additional management measures, describes the state's threatened and endangered waterbodies, and outlines the requirements for technical assistance.

Part V: Public Participation
Describes the opportunities for public participation in the program development and implementation processes, and highlights public educational efforts throughout the state.

Part VI: Administrative Coordination
Outlines the federal, state, and county agency agencies that play a role in implementing the coastal nonpoint pollution control program.

Part VII: Monitoring & Tracking Techniques
Describes state state's monitoring efforts.

Part VIII: Glossary

Part IX: References

Appendix A: Working Group & Focus Group Participants and Mailing List

Appendix B: Golf Course Management Bibliography

Appendix C: Regional & Watershed Approaches

Findings and Conditions for the Hawaii Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program

NOAA and EPA's Findings and Conditions for "Hawaii's Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program"(CNPCP)

In July 1998, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of the final Findings and Conditions for Hawaii's Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program (CNPCP). This Findings and Conditions document is the culmination of NOAA and EPA's review of Hawaii's CNPCP. It grants the State conditional approval of its program and enumerates conditions which Hawaii must fulfill to receive full approval.

The State's Department of Health and Office of Planning worked extensively with NOAA and EPA during their development of these Findings and Conditions. Despite reviews of several drafts and numerous conference calls and meetings, the final document does not address several of our substantive and long-standing concerns about the CNPCP and NOAA and EPA's expectations.

Briefly, our outstanding concerns on the Findings and Conditions document are as follows:

Some of the federally mandated management measures cannot be implemented in an economically achievable manner in Hawaii, given the State's unique economic, political, and geophysical characteristics. Furthermore, the opinions of local technical experts should prevail over federal technical experts in the event of disagreements over the achievability of management measures.

Time frames for addressing conditions and implementing the program are not achievable given current funding levels. More resources are needed for the State to develop appropriate management measures and effectively implement the program.

NOAA and EPA expect the State to have oversight authority or back-up enforcement authority over all aspects of the implementation of the CNPCP at the county level. This requirement is inconsistent with the constitutional and historical political relationships between the State and the Counties.

Clean coastal water quality and improved control of polluted runoff remain State priorities. We are committed to developing a CNPCP that our State and County agencies and other organizations can implement to make meaningful improvements to coastal water quality and polluted runoff control. We are working with these agencies and affected stakeholders to develop a program that is most appropriate for Hawaii. Only through partnerships with stakeholders (agencies, university, non-government organizations, and individuals), which entails listening to expertise and working together to develop appropriate mechanisms and measures, will we be able to develop an effective and successful Hawaii CNPCP.

If you have questions about the Hawaii CNPCP final Findings and Conditions document, please do not hesitate to contact Randall Rush of DOH or Steve Olive of OP at (808) 586-4348 or (808) 587-2877 respectively.

Hawaii's Implementation Plan for Polluted Runoff Control

What's going down with the rain?

The Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program of the Office of Planning (OP) and the Polluted Runoff Control Program of the Department of Health (DOH) invite you to check out "Hawaii®s Implementation Plan for Polluted Runoff Control".

The document incorporates an update of "Hawai`i®s Nonpoint Source Management Program" Preliminary Draft (July 1999).

Rain falling on the Hawaiian Islands picks up and transports natural and manmade pollutants from the mountaintops to our beaches.f Many of these pollutants, such as fertilizers, pesticides, oil, grease, and sediment from construction sites are deposited in our streams, our underground sources of drinking water, and our favorite coastal fishing, swimming, and surfing spots.f Polluted runoff (also known as "nonpoint source pollution") is a major threat to water quality in Hawai`i and has already caused 18 waterbodies in the state to be officially designated as impaired.

What can we do about it?

If clean waters are important to you, your lifestyle, or your business, the State's efforts to control polluted runoff can use your help.

To become involved in focus groups or for document copies,questions, or comments, kindly contact:

Melissa Iwamoto
Coastal Zone Management Program
Office of Planning
P.O. Box 2359
Honolulu, HI 96804
Tel: 808-587-2845
fax: 808-587-2899

Lawana Collier
Polluted Runoff Control Program
Department of Health
919 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 301
Honolulu, HI 96814
Tel: 808-586-4345
fax: 808-586-4352

The Hawaii Unified Watershed Assessment

Click here for the The Hawaii Unified Watershed Assessment

Water Quality References Directory (CZMWQDIR)

Click here for Water Quality References Directory

The Directory is an EndNote Plus bibliographic reference data base which provides reference listings of water quality data found in studies, technical reports, published papers, and the like for the main Hawaiian Islands for the period 1980 to 2000.1 Included in CZMWQDIR are any documents covering fresh water, brackish, or hyperhaline environments (including fishponds and anchialine features), and coastal waters (including embayments and harbors) within the Hawaiian Islands. In gathering together references for inclusion, the editors have placed particular emphasis on technical reports (essentially unpublished reports) by corporations, consultants, students, organizations, and government agencies for the reason that these types of studies and surveys are most difficult to track through standard bibliographic data bases. In addition, far greater numbers of field surveys and site specific observations are available from this "gray" literature than the published literature.

Note that this is a bibliographic reference data base. The data base does not contain any water quality data, only a list of references, which contain water quality data. However, in order to be included in this data base, each reference was physically reviewed to obtain specific information on sampling locations and types of water quality measurements that accompany each entry. Inclusion of this information on each reference allows the data base to be searched to yield a list of documents that contain (for example) certain types of water quality measurements made at specified locations.

For more information, see the "Introduction" online using the link or contact the project manager, Melissa Iwamoto, at the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program (HCZMP). The printed version of the data base is available at local libraries and from HCZMP as a word file, and as a series of Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files available through the link.

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Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Control (Section 6217)