The city might need to spend millions to replace two force main lines in Ko Olina after one broke this week near the site of a break in late November, spilling tens if not hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage, city Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said Tuesday morning.
The city is still gathering data to determine how much was spilled from the 20-inch West Beach Force Main No. 2 onto vacant land near the Ko Olina golf course, Kahikina said. “As of right now we just know it’s a very large spill, similar to the last one.”
In November a different section of the same force main broke about 30 feet away, causing 200,000 gallons to spill.
An estimate for the current spill will be released in a few days because of a desire to be “extremely cautious” to ensure accurate data, she said.
The section of the 8,000-foot-long force main line that broke in November was replaced, she said. But after the second break in two months, wastewater officials are considering replacing both Force Main No. 2 and the force main that runs parallel to it, Force Main No. 1, she said.
The city had already seen three breaks along Force Main No. 1 since January 2013 and was already discussing the possibility of replacing it, she said.
Replacing the two lines could cost tens of millions of dollars and take up to two years, she said.
The force mains are supposed to last about 50 years, she said. Force Main No. 1 was built in December 1988, and Force Main No. 2 was built in 1990.
“That’s why we wouldn’t expect it to be breaking,” Kahikina said.
This time, as in November, the spill flowed onto an undeveloped patch of land not near a populated area, and no effluent is expected to reach the ocean or other waterways, Kahikina said. Much of the November spill went into vacant land and dissipated, she said.
City wastewater officials are speculating that the breaks may be tied to a nearby fuel line that uses the cathodic protection process to fight off corrosion.
“When you put a cathodic protection system on your line, if there’s an adjacent line, they could use that as a sacrificial anode,” Kahikina said. “It’s not the fault of the owner of the fuel line. They’re using it to protect their line. It’s nothing against them. We just need to look at protecting our line. We are looking at maybe replacing the two whole new lines and then possibly putting our own cathodic protection on there.”
Tuesday morning, Kahikina’s Department of Environmental Services received the call about the leak at 7:45 a.m., had personnel at the site at 9 and had the spill contained by 10:30 a.m., officials said. The city Department of Design and Construction hired a contractor to repair the pipe, and is using tanker, vacuum and cesspool trucks to capture the flow at the West Beach No. 2 Wastewater Pump Station and distributing it to the West Beach No. 1 Wastewater Pump Station nearby, officials said.
The spill is not affecting the nearby Ko Olina Golf Course and is not threatening any waterways, Kahikina said. Warning signs are posted in the immediate area.
The November incident resulted in approximately 200,000 gallons being spilled onto about 1.5 acres of vacant land and did not affect the golf course or nearby waterways.
The state Department of Health was notified, and warning signs were posted.
