Inouye wants to help Kaua’i replace cesspools

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai’i) is seeking Congressional approval for a $500,000 grant to identify large capacity cesspools on Kaua’i and to replace them with septic tanks or to hook them up to sewer systems on the island.

The funds, if approved by Congress and President Bush, could prevent sewage from contaminating underground drinking water on Kaua’i.

Kaua’i has at least 176 large capacity cesspools that could be upgraded should the funds be made available, according to Shanon Fitzgerald, a spokesman for EPA’s regional office in San Francisco.

Most if not all the county parks operate on such cesspools.

Doug Haigh, building superintendent with the Kaua’i County Public Works Department, is securing a state Revolving Fund allotment to upgrade the park cesspool systems, according to Laura Bose, a senior policy advisor with the Water Division of EPA’s regional office in San Francisco.

Federal and state funds could be used to hook up the cesspools to county sewer systems or to replace the cesspools with septic tanks, Bose said.

It is not known at this point whether the Wastewater Division of the Kaua’i County Public Works Department has plans to upgrade other large capacity cesspools on the island.

The $500,000 grant that could come to Kaua’i could be used to clean up such cesspool systems that once served old plantation camp homes on the island, said Dean Higuchi, an EPA spokesman on O’ahu.

“In the older plantation housing areas, chances are you are going to have large capacity cesspools serving multiple households,” Higuchi said. Such cesspool systems serve plantation homes located on Gay and Robinson properties in Makaweli.

The untreated sewage from the cesspool systems can pose a public hazard as it could percolate into the ground and make its way to underground drinking water sources.

If the cesspools are located near the ocean, the sewage could find its way to the ocean, causing ill effects for humans and marine life, Higuchi said. The number of those types of cesspools on Kaua’i was not immediately known.

All the large capacity cesspools statewide must be closed by April 5, 2005, in compliance with an EPA mandate.

EPA also has banned the construction of large capacity cesspool systems since April 5, 2000. Large capacity systems are those that receive untreated sewage from 20 or more people per day or receive daily flows of more than 1,000 gallons.

The proposed federal plan would not apply to cesspools of single family homes.

The large capacity cesspool systems were installed on Kaua’i and elsewhere in the state in the past partly because they were inexpensive to construct and to operate.

Matching funds from Kaua’i County or island entities for the proposed work would have to be provided in order for the EPA grant funds to be released, Bose said

The $500,000 is part of $1 million Inouye has sought for work on Kaua’i and in rural parts of O’ahu.

Separate from the proposed $1 million grant proposed for Kaua’i and in rural O’ahu, the EPA awarded a $76,000 grant to Hawai’i County to locate large capacity cesspools and to continue efforts to replace them, EPA announced this week.

Bose said the $76,000 is part of a $477,000 EPA grant to the Big Island, and that officials there will ask for the balance in increments to replace the large cesspool systems on that island.

“Replacing or closing large cesspools that release raw sewage is a vital step in protecting human health and the water of Hawai’i, said Alexis Strauss, director for EPA’s water division for the Pacific Southwest region.

He said Big Island Mayor Harry Kim and his staff are leading efforts to ensure Hawai’i County complies with the April 2005 closure deadline for large capacity cesspools on their island.

The EPA has worked with county, state and federal agencies in Hawai’i to begin closing more than 300 publicly-owned large capacity cesspools across the state. More than 2,000 potential large scale cesspools have been identified statewide so far.