For months, Kaimana Beach-goers have complained about the weak water pressure at the popular destination’s new “low-flow” public shower, which the city paid $478,000 to install near the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium late last year. 

Honolulu parks officials previously downplayed those complaints by reminding users that the shower was expressly designed to save water – and by suggesting they should use it “properly.” That meant rinsing off sand only, they said, not bathing or deep-cleaning.

Now, however, the city acknowledges there’s a problem with the shower’s flow after all. Fixing it could require more taxpayer dollars, depending on what’s wrong. 

“We see that it’s coming out almost as a trickle, which is not what it should have been and not what we were expecting,” said Randall Wakumoto, the stormwater quality program administrator at the city’s Facility Maintenance Department. “We suspect there might be something that is happening, not necessarily what it’s designed to do.”

The Kaimana shower is the first of 11 public showers across the Waikiki shoreline that the city needs to move farther away from the beach to comply with federal stormwater requirements, according to Wakumoto.

It’s not clear what the total price tag will be for that effort, but some of those new showers will likely cost three to four times more than the Kaimana one largely due to their space constraints in busy locations, he said. That includes a heavily used shower next to the Waikiki police substation on Kalakaua Avenue.

Wakumoto expressed doubt that the other showers would encounter the same weak flow problems as Kaimana. The city suspects that faulty pressure valves inside the Kaimana shower’s “tree,”  or concrete post, could be the culprit. 

Facility Maintenance has asked one of the plumbing subcontractors under Site Engineering Inc., which completed the project, to open up the post and take photos to confirm if the valves are working properly, Wakamuto said. He didn’t have an estimate on when that task would be done.

If the valves prove to be working OK, the city might test to see whether the issue stems from the water pressure in relatively old water lines under the grassy area that feed the shower, he said. 

If that proves to be the culprit, the city would have to cover the additional costs for those repairs to get the new shower to work properly, he said.

“We’re trying to figure it out. We might have to put in some submeters,” he said.

No Pressure Problem With Old Shower

Oahu resident Jaimeson Yoshi has been going to Kaimana Beach about once a week for years, he said, and when the new shower was installed its water pressure “started off bad and got a lot worse” over time.

Yoshi and another Oahu resident, Andrew Balasia, both said they preferred the previous Kaimana shower, which had stronger pressure and was situated closer to the beach.

However, the previous shower was basically a “pipe … sticking out of the ground” that drained directly into the ocean and violated the city’s stormwater permit with the state Department of Health, Wakumoto said.

It wasn’t permitted, and he wasn’t sure who had installed it. City officials proceeded to replace it after the DOH notified them of public complaints about the shower draining directly to the beach, he said.

Because of its makeshift design, the old shower gushed water at about 20 gallons per minute, Wakumoto said. The new shower, meanwhile, is designed to release 2.5 gallons per minute, he said. It has three shower heads and a foot wash, and they’re timed to shut off after 45 seconds. 

Facility Maintenance has designs prepared to replace the four showers along Kapiolani Beach Park but those plans still have to go through the state’s archeological review process, Wakumoto said, and their replacement is at least a year and a half away.  

Those showers would have a similar price tag as the Kaimana one, and “we’re expecting that those ones should be a lot better” in terms of water pressure, he said.

The remaining six showers, some of them at Kuhio Beach Park as well as the one next to the police substation, are not as far along in the relocation process.

Separate from the Waikiki showers, the city has also partnered with the conservation-focused engineering firm NORESCO to convert an additional 29 public showers at seven city parks into low-flow showers that reduce water usage and save money, according to Scott Humber, communications director for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

Those showers are at Ala Moana Regional Park, Haleiwa Alii Beach Park, Keaau Beach Park, Keehi Lagoon Park, Makapuu Beach Park, Sandy Beach Park and Waimanalo Beach Park, according to Humber.