We recently booked a condo in Kihei and later heard a rumor that the ocean water at Kihei is reclaimed sewage water and should not be swam in. Is this true? Do people not swim from Maalaea Bay to Cove Park?

How can the ocean be reclaimed? Do you mean is reclaimed water pumped into the area ocean waters?

Where in the world did you hear this? Can you imagine what that would do to the eco life of the precious sea?

Not true....

In southern CA there are sewage spills and the beaches are closed due to high levels of contamination. There are signs telling you not to go in the water. I have never seen such a thing in Maui. Course I haven't been there eveery single day. Though I wish I were!

Oh...and I thought those small brown things I saw floating off of Kamaole One were twigs..eeeeck!

You are probably referring to a stream that enters the bay near Maalaea (north, and west of, Kihei). Few people swim that very end of the beach, but Kamaole Beach Parks in Kihei, farther south, are terrific.

Check a Maui Revealed book. According to the last one I read, the authors did not recommend swimming at Cove Park and north to Maipoina Oe Lau Beach Park. I do believe the reason was becuase of some form of occasional treated (or untreated, I can't remember) sewage effluence in the Cove Park area that then gets carried north by the ocean currents.

The beaches in North Kihei where you mentioned are often referred to as 'walking beaches'. There's also more wind in the area creating choppier water, so I would so to South Kihei/Wailea/Makena.

Well, I'm glad I've never put my tootsies in the water or on the beaches at Kihei. Kihei, to us, is for shopping and dining at Sansei, that's it. Alooooooha!

Read again; it's only the far north part of kihei, the rest of the beaches are great.