Water Quality Monitoring

Today is my 1st day actually out helping the Safe Drinking Water Branch staff with the water quality monitoring. Because I was packing & helping Alexis get the van ready to ship back to Hawai'i Island, I did not sign up for any earlier days this week. Today I helped Lauren collect samples from 5 sites at Camp Smith; we went to the dental lab in the medical building, the fire station, & 3 residences. Lauren is actually no longer with the SDWB; she is now with Solid Waste but used to work in the Hazard Evaluation & Emergency Response Office so she used to do a lot of water quality sampling. I learned a lot from her today & also had a great time.

We parked in Mr. Martin's spot while coordinating with our military escort.

Based on size of house, yard, distance from other houses, & views we think this sample site was upper echelon officer housing.

Yesterday the Department of Health released information on the 27 locations where test results have been returned. In 5 of the samples trace amounts of petroleum products were found but they were well below the DOH Environmental Action Levels. Lauren explained to our Navy escort Kuester & firefighter Apu that it means something was found but it was not at a level identified by the State (& other regulatory agencies) as high enough a level for action to be necessary to protect the health of the public. Essentially the amount found was a magnitude below the level were action is required. Because Lauren had worked for HEER she was a good person to ask about those things.

I found it interesting that one of the people we spoke to said their family only used the water for bathing; they drank bottled water. The woman said they do not drink the water on base ever since they were stationed at Camp Lejeune. I Googled it; apparently it was a long-standing contamination problem & the Veterans Administration now provides disability benefits for people who served a minimum of 30 cumulative days between August 1953 and December 1987! Auē! No wonder there are a bunch of people who are wary of what the military is saying about this current incident! (That was not a typo, the start date is August 1953.)

During sampling I did the chlorine testing with the Hach colorimeter; it is similar to other Hach field monitoring equipment I have used (i.e., fairly idiot-proof). While I waited for the sample to be fixed by the reagents, Lauren collected the rest of the samples. I also filled out the comments section of the paperwork indicating which spigot we collected the sample at; our system worked very efficiently.

When we were done with all the sampling sites, we dropped the various samples off at different places. Two of the bottles from each site were collected at the HEER prep area; all those samples from all the teams were being handled by one runner to be taken in to a lab in town instead of each team making the trip there & back. The 6 other bottles from each site went to 2 labs at the State facility just up the road from SDWB; Lauren signed all the Chain of Custody forms. Even with all that we were done by 11:40 a.m. Lauren said part of that was because the sites we were collecting samples from today were a relatively short drive away.  

While we were driving around Lauren & I were wondering whether we would be sampling on Christmas Day. I told her it was shown on the request for volunteers as a potential day, like all the weekends. She said she knew there were teams out collecting samples over the previous weekend. Later, one of the lab people said they were not asked to staff the lab on Christmas Day but he knew he was scheduled to work on New Years Eve. 

On my way to SDWB this morning I ran in to another traffic jam, like I did on the day of the training. And like the day of the training it started as soon as I got on the freeway! Auē! Fortunately, it was just the residual back up caused by an earlier accident that was cleared. I arrived about 15 minutes early.

As I was making my way up to SDWB, I saw one of the ahupuaʻa signs. Ahupuaʻa is the land division system used by the Hawaiians. It is still used; you must know the ahupuaʻa where your property is located in order to determine its property Tax Key Number. I really like the ahupuaʻa system; it runs from the crest of the mountain to the adjoining ocean area so the inhabitants of the area have all the resources they need.

Just before the daily briefing started, I got a text from Dave; I had been expecting it. Because of the increasing case numbers he is looking for all hands on deck; kinda like the SDWB with the Red Hill water contamination incident. I told him I was busy through Sunday & took next week off because I had friends visiting. I told him I would check in with them when they arrive to see what days we will be doing things together & I would look at working the other days. Non-consecutively, of course; don't want to lose my voice again!

As I was on the freeway after leaving the SDWB office, Louis called but I really couldn't hear him very well. I asked him to call back in an hour. He said he would but he never called back, I'm hoping he calls tomorrow since I am not working anywhere. I was going to help Alexis get to the airport but Dr. Walshʻs wife is off so she will make the airport run since Alexis is staying with them.

On the way home I stopped at Kokua Market for cottage cheese. I also picked up some deli items; I got Turkey Stew, Winter Veggie Roast, & Steamed Broccoli & Kale. For lunch I had a little of the Turkey Stew with some Super Crisps; they're kinda like seeds glued together with chickpea flour. 

This Rock Dove seems to like Aisle 1!

For dinner I tried the burritos I had bought earlier. They were both a little bland. I don't think I am going to go out of my way to find more of these.

Poor S'mores! She was relaxing in the cat run when I got home; she apparently did not want to be out there while someone was in the house. She peered in but would not come through the cat door while I was standing nearby; I moved so I was standing behind a box & she was unable to see my feet. She thought she was in the clear but was surprised once she got in & saw me! She is not the brightest bulb in the pack.

Looks like the coast is clear; obviously if she looked up she could see me.

S'mores begins to enter the house.

She sees me! And stops momentarily.

It's getting to be that time of the year again. Originally, you did not need permits to buy fireworks for the New Years Eve celebration. Now you need one & while there is limit on how much you can purchase with each permit, you can purchase multiple permits. You need to show your permit when you purchase them. Permits become available 2 weeks before New Years Eve. The fireworks may be used from the evening of  December 31st through sometime on January 1st; but some people don't pay attention to their permit conditions.

It looks like the Ironman World Championship will be returning to Kona in 2022. Due to the pandemic it was cancelled in 2020 and held in Utah in 2021. It will be best to stay away from Kona & the race route during that day. Or in 2022, days. Apparently it will be run on 2 days, one for men & one for women so that the field is not so close together; a COVID-19 mitigation measure.

Kilauea is still erupting, though it did look like it slowed down a little during the day.

At 6:39 a.m.

At 3:50 p.m.

At 6:39 a.m.

At 3:50 p.m.

Looks like the new snow they were anticipating on Mauna Kea finally arrived; it appears to have come in around sunset but did not appear to last more than an hour. 

It looks like the Subaru Telescope is at about 13,550 feet above sea level.

Road to right goes to Keck telescope; left goes to Submillimeter Array & telescopes southerly of Subaru Telescope.

Looks busy today.

Everyone has left as clouds move in.

I think it's starting to snow.

Fresh snow!

The snowfall did not last long.

No more snow for the rest of the night.

The Aix weather app forecast sunny skies in Honolulu until mid-afternoon when it would become partly cloudy with rain in the evening; it turned out to be partly cloudy all day with a light drizzle in the evening. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast sunny skies until mid-afternoon when it would begin to drizzle with rain during the evening; Big Island Now forecast partly sunny with scattered showers & a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station was dry in the morning but had accumulated 0.01 inches of precipitation by 3:42 p.m. For Marysville, Aix forecast rain all day; the traffic cams appeared to support that.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:32 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:32 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 6:33 A.M. HST.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 6:37 a.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 7:08 a.m.

Nā Koʻolau at 7:12 a.m.

Pearl City looking northerly at 7:45 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 3:42 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 3:42 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 3:42 p.m.

The north facing shores continue to have the best surf conditions, closely followed by east facing shores.

Laniakea (N) at 6:39 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 6:34 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 6:36 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 6:35 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 3:454 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 3:46 p.m.

Waikīkī at 3:47 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 3:49 p.m.

Apparently this is the 1 year anniversary of vaccines against COVID-19 being administered in the State; these were administered in nursing homes. I started working at the Leeward Community College Vaccine Point of Dispensing Clinic on December 22nd last year. In my work as a contact tracer I have noticed a shift in the type of people who tested positive before & after vaccines became widely available; pre-vaccine availability it was older people with underlying conditions, post-vaccine it was younger adults & children. When the Delta variant began to spread in the community, I talked to more people under 50 who had more severe symptoms & also more people answering for those who had passed away from COVID-19. I am not sure what changes I will notice when I get back to contact tracing as the Omicron variant becomes more prevalent.

I found the Variant Report on the DOH website tonight, even though it has a publication date of yesterday; the most current tests results for the report were from December 4th. Omicron is shown in the report; as of the report date it had been identified in 2% of the cases Statewide. Currently it has only been seen in Honolulu County where it makes up 5% of the cases. It is only a matter of time before it spreads to the other counties.

The City & County of Honolulu covers the entire island of Oʻahu.

There were 395 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 90,270; the Department of Health said todayʻs number includes 130 backlogged cases from November 28th through Monday. That is still 265 cases from Tuesday's testing. There were also 2 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 1065; currently there are 2169 cases considered active. As of today 2,447,238 doses of vaccine have been administered, providing 73.3% of the population with full vaccination & 78.5% with at least one dose. Currently 40 cases are in the hospital with 9 in the ICU & 5 of those on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for the State is 210 with a positivity rate of 3.1% The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 168 with a positivity rate of 3.8%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Adnan!