Our beaches and waterways are Hawai'i's allure. For our own good, and for the sake of our tourist economy, we must ensure that our Island waters remain as pristine and appealing as possible.

That's why we can't get complacent about water quality even as a new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council gives the state a glowing report card for 2005.

Released last week in conjunction with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the study found just 4 percent of 2,274 water samples taken here exceeded national contamination standards.

It's a good number, but it's juxtaposed with a more damning figure — a 91 percent increase in the number of days state beaches were found to be contaminated and placed under advisory warnings.

The state Department of Health tried to downplay the increase by saying it was reflective of more thorough reporting, as well as heavy rains that increased the chances of runoff and sewage spills.

Fair enough. But more sewage is more sewage, and not enough is being done to ensure it doesn't end up contaminating our beach waters.

Every rainy season, a combination of rainwater runoff and a faulty sewage infrastructure pose the biggest threat to our beaches.

More telling is that the NRDC report predated this year's March deluge that resulted in a number of beach closures and forced city officials to dump 48 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai when our aging sewers backed up. That memory puts into context last week's glowing report of our beaches.

One important point in this study is that beach pollution flows back to each of us. Every time something is dumped into a gutter or waterway, it adds to ocean pollution.

That tells us that every citizen, not just the city and the state, has a responsibility to ensure our beaches are clean and safe.