Maui Post-Wildfire Monitoring and Communication Support

In August 2023, devastating wildfires swept through Lahaina, a historic and culturally rich community on the west coast of Maui, Hawaii. The fires claimed the lives of over 100 people and destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and cherished community spaces. In the immediate aftermath, the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) faced the urgent task of assessing health and environmental impacts caused by the fires to determine when it would be safe for residents to return to their community and begin rebuilding. During this period, DOH needed to provide timely updates to the public about initial environmental monitoring results, ongoing response efforts, and plans to address potential long-term risks to public health and the environment. DOH asked ERG to support this work. 

ERG supported DOH in developing and implementing the Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring Plan (CEMP), which described a comprehensive data collection framework focused on coastal water quality, sediment, and soils. ERG’s support included rapidly procuring sampling equipment and laboratory services; developing environmental media-specific Quality Assurance Project Plans and Sampling Analysis Plans; designing sampling strategies aligned with DOH’s Technical Guidance Manual; developing teaming agreements with local entities for sample collection; and rapidly deploying field crews to Lahaina for data collection. As of fall 2025, ERG had completed six rounds of water quality and sediment sampling for DOH, assessed beach sand for re-opening beaches, and conducted soil sampling across parks and open spaces in Lahaina to provide data for science-based decision-making. 

To ensure transparency and public access to the environmental data collected in response to the Maui wildfires, ERG quickly developed a public-facing WordPress data portal for DOH. This website provides direct access to sampling and monitoring results, plain-language explanations with understandable graphs and maps, and expert interpretation provided by ERG’s public health scientists, who identified potential exposure pathways and evaluated whether people could be exposed to concentrations of contaminants above levels of concern. The site also provides background information on the Maui wildfires and DOH’s approach to sampling and analysis. In addition, ERG developed a CEMP template and WordPress site template for DOH use in collecting high-quality data and disseminating public information when responding to future environmental emergencies. Ongoing ERG work includes support for environmental data management, a larger and more interactive web data portal, and planning for comprehensive environmental emergency response across DOH’s Environmental Management Division.