Sewage spill closes Waikiki Beach

HONOLULU – Most of the beach fronting Waikiki remained closed Tuesday after heavy rains triggered a half-million-gallon sewage spill near Hawaii’s world-famous tourist district, officials said.

The beach area was closed Monday after stormwater flowed into the city’s sewage system as a weather system linked to Tropical Storm Kilo dumped heavy rain.

The heavy rains overwhelmed the sewage system, causing 500,000 gallons of wastewater to spew from manholes, said Lori Kahikina, Honolulu’s director of environmental services. “Now’s not the time to go swimming,” she told reporters.

It could be a couple of days before the ocean is clear enough for people to enter, Kahikina said. It would likely take that long for water samples to be tested for safety, she said.

Waikiki is home to many of the state’s biggest hotels and is the engine of Hawaii’s tourism-dependent economy.

The city is advising people to avoid a 4-mile stretch of waterfront from Kapahulu Avenue in Waikiki to Point Panic in Kakaako. Sewage came out of manholes at Ala Moana Beach Park, on a street fronting a shopping mall at the edge of Waikiki and a pumping station.

The entire state remained under a flash-flood watch again Tuesday, with more rain expected. This year’s hurricane season has been particularly active, and the season lasts through the end of November.

A new tropical storm, Ignacio, formed east of the Hawaiian Islands on Tuesday and is forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday, Central Pacific Hurricane Center meteorologist Chevy Chevalier said. “It’s an above-average year already, and we’re still just in August,” he added.

There have been 17 storms so far this year in the Pacific, 12 of which reached hurricane status, according to the National Weather Service.