The "Blue Book" says some pretty nasty things about the beaches and the ocean in front of the condo we will be staying in for a week in December (Menehune Shores). Specifically, they say you should not swim anywhere from the north end of Kihei town to Cove Park because the ocean is polluted and "a bit smelly, murky, full of seaweed and generally unpleasant." They say this is because of a water treatment plant that empties into the ocean in this area. Can anyone tell me if this is accurate? Here_today_gone2Maui - do you agree with this?

We stayed at Menehune Shores ten years ago on our first visit to Maui. Yes, the beach is unswimable.
It is more a problem of shallow water that extends through this section of Maui until you get to the Kamaole beaches to the south.
If you fly in from Honolulu it is easy to see the changes in the depth of the water from the air.
All the beaches below Kam I are wonderful. They are somewhat protected from large ocean swell by other islands. And, judging from the large amount of marine life in the area,free of contamination.

I have never thought of or heard the beaches in north Kihei as "polluted." The more I hear from the authors of these books, the more exception I take to some of the decisions they made in their content.

The water in north Kihei does suffer from natural phemonena, such as seaweed, but it is a cyclical thing and is not a constant. What was a nasty smelly problem 18 months ago has not really occurred this year. There is a certain type of invasive algea that in some years has been a problem in the north Kihei area.

The Kihei Wastewater Treatment Facility is located up near the Elliare Golf Course which is south of the area in question, and the effluent is not released into the ocean. I have never heard of their being an issue in Kihei, and actually, I have heard of the Kihei treament plant being used as a model for other areas in the country. I may have missed something because up until this year, I have only spent about a third of my time on Maui. I have heard of problems related to the injection wells at the treatment plant in Lahaina, though. A recent list of Maui's top polluters did not include any of the three water treament facilities, but did include four power generating facilities

Sorry, I hit POST rematurely

Our waters are monitred weekly for bacterial content and I do not recall any Kihei beaches being closed recently due to high bacterias counts. I do recall Cove Park being closed once in 2002 after a storm. Storm runoff is probably our largest problem, especially from agricultural lands.

The beaches in north Kihei range from rocky and shallow, to slivers of sand to seawalls and no sand at all. to great dog beaches and a nice little baby beach. But in general, they are not good swimming beaches because of the natural conditions of the beaches more than the seaweed issue. I was on one of our north beaches the other day and the water was clear and calm.

BTW, while at the Menehune Shores, stop in at Yorman's in the evening for some great jazz.

Thanks so much for the info, here_today! You are a real Fodor's gem! I was somewhat suspicious of the statement in Maui Revealed because I had not read anything similar in any other source, and I have been keeping an eye on Maui news online. I'm really looking forward to our first visit to Maui (we've been to Kauai and the Big Island several times). Thanks again!

Oh, and we will definitely check out Yorman's!