How bad are hazardous materials for waters off Maui
After the Maui wildfires, there is a lot of hazardous debris all over the area. It may take months for them to clean it up. We wanted to know how dangerous these hazardous materials could be if they went into the ocean.
Dr. Robert Richmond, who is a research professor and Director at Kewalo Marine Laboratory joined us again this morning on Wake Up 2Day to give us some answers for this potentially dangerous situation for the ocean ecosystem.
We asked Dr. Richmond about rain. Though we are not expecting any significant rain anytime soon but what if we did. Would it be very bad for the ocean if we did have rain? We definitely need rain because of the current drought situation.
He said that the best thing to have would be light, steady rain so that it would minimize pollutants from the fire areas going into the ocean. Dr. Richmond said if we had heavy rain over that area on Maui now, a lot of pollutants would end up in the ocean.
We also asked him what actions have been taken so far to avoid hazardous materials going into the ocean?
Dr. Richmond said they have been very reactive about this situation and have taken measures to minimize ocean pollution in the ocean. They actually took action rather quickly with the Coast Guard setting up pollution-blocking walls offshore. Other state and county officials also have been taking action to prevent these pollutants from ending up in the ocean.
