All Hawaii private homeowners, businesses and organizations with cesspools would have to stop using them by 2050, according to a bill passed Tuesday by the state Legislature.
All Hawaii private homeowners, businesses and organizations with cesspools would have to stop using them by 2050, according to a bill passed Tuesday by the state Legislature.
House Bill 1244, if signed by the governor, will revise existing statutes to require that every cesspool in the state, unless exempted, “shall be upgraded or converted to a septic system or aerobic-treatment unit system, or connected to a sewage system” by Jan. 1, 2050.
The bill also extends eligibility for tax credits to offset the cost of complying.
Hawaii County has been under the magnifying glass of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since a 2005 cesspool ban went into effect.
The EPA is accepting public comment until May 30 on an administrative order of consent “mandating that the County of Hawaii close large-capacity community cesspools in Pahala and Naalehu,” Mayor Harry Kim’s office said in a Tuesday morning announcement.
“This is long overdue,” said Hawaii County Department of Environmental Management Director Bill Kucharski. “They were supposed to have closed in 2005.”
One cesspool serves 109 private homes in Pahala, another serves 163 homes in Naalehu, and two serve the Pahala Elderly Apartments.
Kucharski said the county is prepared to close those cesspools. First, the Elderly Apartments will have a new septic system installed. Then, sewage-treatment facilities will be constructed for Pahala and Naalehu. Homes there already are connected to joint lines that feed each cesspool. Once the treatment facilities go online, the main line serving each group of homes will be rerouted.
“All that wastewater that was going into the cesspool will then go into the wastewater-treatment plant,” Kucharski said.
Through time, all homes will get connected to new, separate sewer lines feeding the treatment facilities.
“Those houses will all be connected, one at a time, to the sewer system,” Kucharski said.
Cost of the new facilities will be about $7 million for Pahala, about $14 million for Naalehu and about $300,000 for the senior housing, Kucharski said.
Money for construction will come from an EPA grant and Hawaii County funds. Timeline for completion, agreed to by the EPA, is between 2020 and 2022, Kucharski said.
“They’re usually much more forceful in their enforcement,” Kucharski said. “But they do understand the issues that we faced.”
Those issues included consideration of multiple potential treatment facility sites — 14 for Naalehu alone.
Kucharski said homeowners who get hooked up to the sewer system will have to pay about $27 monthly in fees. State code requires homeowners to hook up if sewer connection is available, he said.
The entire state has about 90,000 cesspools, Kucharski said, and about 50,000 of them are in Hawaii County.
A cesspool, Kucharski said, is essentially a hole in the ground, with solids and liquids leaching slowly into the soil. A septic system retains solids and must be emptied from time to time, but liquids still leach into the soil.
“We are really struggling with how do we upgrade our systems in a way that people can afford to protect their health, the shoreline and the environment,” Kucharski said.
There’s no quick fix for the county or for private homeowners to install septic systems, he said.
“It’s a lot more expensive work than a cesspool,” said Jay Walker, owner of J Walker Excavating, serving Pahoa and Hilo. A cesspool costs about $5,000-$7,000 to install, he said, whereas a septic system runs $8,000-$10,000, plus the cost of pumping the septic system out every so often.
Owners of private property will be able to request state exemptions to the new requirement if it’s signed into law by the governor. Potential exemptions include small lot size, poor soil, steep location and accessibility.
At the county level, Kucharski said, “we’re going to shut down the cesspools as soon as we can.”
For private homeowners, he said, “2050 will be here before you blink.”
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.