EPA forces Hawaii to clean up two beaches contaminated by trash
Hawaii has a plastic problem on its coasts, and the EPA is forcing the state to try and improve it.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the waters of two beaches in Hawaii — including one so infamous that it’s nicknamed “Trash Beach” — as being contaminated by garbage. Its actions will require officials to establish a daily limit for the trash at both locations.
The agency published a notice about the decision on Friday and is seeking public comment for the next several weeks. Hawaii had initially tried to fight this requirement, but the EPA has overruled the state.
“Hopefully this will force Hawaii to change that tune and start seriously addressing the problem of plastics in Hawaii,” David Forman, director of the environmental law program at the University of Hawaii’s law school, told AP.
Given Hawaii’s isolated position in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, plenty of debris that originates elsewhere and flows with the current gets stopped at its coastline. Both Tern Island and Kamilo Beach, the places named by the EPA, receive a constant stream of garbage on their once-beautiful shores due to their unlucky locations in the middle of currents. Kamilo, notes Atlas Obscura, “accumulates garbage and marine debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in astounding proportions.”
Maxx Phillips, the Hawaii director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told AP that the state will begin controlling the amount of pollution at these sites as part of its larger water quality management program. She also called on government officials to hold accountable those businesses that are responsible for the build-up of trash.
“That would be the oil industry and the fossil fuel industry,” she said.
