There were many supporting comments posted about the MauiTime article, plus one insightful constructive criticism. The MauiTime editor Anthony Pignataro requested a response from Mailea Miller-Pierce and Neil Rhoads and posted their reply to the newspapers website at Kihei marine pollution researchers respond to reader criticism following MauiTime story.
Anthony Pignataro writes “On Mar. 17, reader Deren Ash posted a complex comment on the MauiTime Facebook page to my Mar. 16 cover story “The County of Maui is already in hot water over sewage in the ocean off West Maui, but a new study says that the Kihei coast is far worse.” The story detailed recent study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin concerning the possibility that treated sewage injected into the ground at the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility was migrating to near shore waters, specifically around Cove Park and Kalama Beach, and potentially killing coral there. Specifically, Ash found fault with the notion that the injection wells were a source of the pollution found in ocean off Kihei.“