LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) — In a story March 13 about the chemical herbicide atrazine, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the manager of the Kauai County Department of Water spoke at a meeting discussing the chemical. Craddick issued a statement in response to the meeting and did not attend.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Officials say atrazine not found in Kauai water
Kauai officials say no atrazine found in county water system
Kauai residents are being reassured by county officials that their drinking water is safe from the chemical herbicide atrazine.
David Craddick, manager of the Kauai County Department of Water, said no trace of atrazine has ever been found in the Waimea-Kekaha water system, according to Wednesday's Garden Island (http://is.gd/irQLcu ).
"For decades the department has been monitoring the water for the Waimea-Kekaha water system for a number of chemical contaminants including atrazine," Craddick said in a news release Tuesday. "While trace amounts of atrazine were detected in some of our water systems, no trace of the chemical was ever found in our Waimea-Kekaha water system, and there has been no detection since 2005."
Craddick was responding to a recent community meeting where more than 300 people heard about the effects of altrazine.
According to Honolulu-based attorney Gerard Jervis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found atrazine in water samples taken at Waimea Canyon Middle School in 2011. Craddick said the chemical could have traveled through the air.
"If it's getting in the dust and blowing around in the wind, that may be an even bigger concern," he said. "We test at our source."
Atrazine is banned in Europe due to groundwater contamination risks. Studies suggest it is associated with a number of serious health problems, including birth defects, cancer and reproductive issues.
Craddick said atrazine was used by the sugar industry and was occasionally detected in some of Kaua'i's water sources.
Carl Arume of the Kaua'i DOW said that since the sugar cane industry came to a halt, so too did the use of atrazine.
"We really haven't seen it for over a decade or so," he said.
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Information from: The Garden Island, http://thegardenisland.com/
