In an April 2010 entry, I filled in the local history of the former federal mine official named to lead an investigation into the West Virginia mine disaster at the Upper Big Branch coal mine that killed 29 miners.

J. Davitt McAteer had been a young attorney associated with Ralph Nader when he was dispatched to Hawaii in 1971 to tackle environmental issues. He quickly made waves by preparing a pamphlet featuring images of raw sewage spreading towards Waikiki, and data on polluted waters taken from Health Department reports. When the pamphlets were distributed to visitors in Waikiki, it made national news, hitting the pages of the New York Times and causing the local power elite to go ballistic.

You can read the whole story in that April 14, 2010 post.

Yesterday, while looking through another file of anti-Vietnam leaflets from that period, I found a prize–an original copy of McAteer’s pamphlet, “Facts you should know to appreciate fully the ALOHA STATE!” and was able to scan it.

McAteer didn’t pull punches.

The untreated sewage of most of the city of Honolulu (population 500,000) is currently dumped into the Pacific from an outfall pipe 35 feet below the surface of the water, only 3,500 feet from land, and less than 4 miles from Waikiki Beach. This raw sewage spews forth at the rate of approximately 55 million gallons a day.

In any case, click on the pamphlet or the link above to read the original.