Mayor Kimo Alameda signed an emergency proclamation Tuesday in preparation for a potential failure of the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant in in Keaukaha.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Alameda issued a proclamation that authorizes emergency measures to be taken in the event of a wastewater infrastructure failure at the plant or its associated infrastructure.
Tom Callis, spokesman for the mayor’s office, said the proclamation is a proactive measure to prepare for a future disaster, particularly as a major rehabilitation project for the WWTP is expected to begin in the coming months.
“This was something (Alameda) campaigned on, that we need to have plans,” Callis said, explaining the proclamation establishes certain emergency powers granted to the mayor for emergency management and better allows him to develop plans of action with other officials in the event of a disaster.
Those emergency powers, as stated in the proclamation, include mobilization of personnel, directing of civilian traffic, procuring facilities or materials, or suspending “any county law that impedes … the expeditious and sufficient execution of … emergency functions.”
The proclamation extends up to 60 days, unless terminated early or extended by another proclamation. Callis said Alameda will extend the proclamation “as long as the risk of disaster remains.”
Department of Environmental Management spokeswoman Christy Swafford said the county is expected to issue a notice to proceed to contractor Nan Inc. in March for a $337 million project to rehabilitate the Hilo WWTP. That project is expected to take five years to complete once the notice to proceed is issued.
Swafford said construction is not expected to begin immediately after the publication of the notice. However, when construction does begin, she said users should not expect any disruptions in wastewater service.
“The plant was originally designed to be added on to,” Swafford said, explaining that redundant systems will keep operating as others are replaced, and adding that the plant’s roughly 30,000 users shouldn’t be able to notice when work begins.
The rehabilitation project is mandatory following an administrative order of consent the county entered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March 2024. That order identified considerable deficiencies at the three county wastewater treatment facilities — including in Papaikou and Kula‘imano, in addition to Hilo — and set out a series of dates by which those problems must be corrected, or else the county will face penalties.
With regard to the Hilo WWTP, the order states that construction on the rehabilitation must begin by Aug. 1.
The project will replace the Hilo WWTP’s headworks system — the system by which wastewater first enters the facility — allowing large debris and particulates to be filtered out more effectively. Other improvements will install new digesters to improve waste processing, plant-wide data monitoring systems, advanced odor-control systems and more.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.