Fast-moving Hawaii fires will take a heavy toll on the state’s environment

By DOUG GLASS and JENNIFER MCDERMOTT
Associated Press

The fast-moving wildfires that raked Maui this week will take a heavy toll on the environment. Experts say the fires are likely to transform the landscape in unwanted ways including hastening erosion, sending sediment into waterways and degrading coral that is critically important to the islands, marine life and people who live nearby. Jamison Gove, a Honolulu-based oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says burning homes, commercial structures and cars and trucks would make any runoff into the ocean worse by concentrating synthetic materials in the stream. Andrew Whelton of Purdue University says the wildfires can contaminate private wells and water systems and even municipal water systems.