The Hawaii Department of Health’s Clean Air Branch has fined HPOWER nearly $19,700 for exceeding the allotted amount of dissolved solids in the recirculation water it uses in its cooling towers.

HPOWER, or Covanta Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture, in Kapolei had exceeded the 85,000 parts-per-million (ppm) limit in its five-cell cooling tower three times and four times in its two-cell cooling tower in 2018, according to the citations.

The total dissolved solids (TDS) in the five-cell cooling tower were as high as 112,000 ppm, which was reported Aug. 2, 2018. In the two-cell cooling tower, the highest reported day was May 10, 2018, which saw 93,600 ppm.

HPOWER was also found to have “failed to keep all air pollution controls … fully functional and operational at all times” three times — once in 2017 and twice in 2018. The longest violation was longer than 78 hours and lasted Dec. 5-8, 2017.

The Clean Air Branch also fined Sphere LLC, or Pacific Aggregate, in Waianae $8,900 for failing to conduct a performance test for its diesel engine generator source.

H-Power citation by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd

Pacific Aggregate citation by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd