A city-initiated measure calling for a more than 124% increase to sewer fees for Oahu’s average single-family residential customer over a 10-year period was recently top of mind for the Honolulu City Council.
Bill 60, if adopted by the Council, would see all of the city’s rate-paying customers, including commercial users, have a total fee hike of 115% over the decade-long time frame, according to the city.
Starting July 1, the city’s plan to increase sewer fees will affect single-family residential customers as well as all other customer classes served by the city and county’s sewer system.
Overall, the city’s proposed sewer rate increases will start with a 9% annual adjustment for the first six years, followed by smaller increases of 8%, 7%, 6% and 5% in the final four years,
officials said.
Currently, the city says, an average single-family residential sewer bill totals approximately $110.89 a month. By July 1 that bill would rise to $122.05 a month.
And by July 2034, the city predicts, the average monthly sewer bill will be $248.53 — a 124.1% increase from the current average sewer bill.
City officials say the proposed sewer fee hikes are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu’s wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040.
The work includes a
$2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree.
Sewer charges consist of two parts: a base charge
and a sewer volume charge, which is based on a customer’s water consumption. Base charges represent the city’s fixed cost associated with operating and maintaining the municipal sewer system, the city said.
ENV will adjust the basis for how sewer fees are calculated to give customers greater control over the amount of their bill, the city said.
Sewer bills include a fixed — or base — charge, currently about 70% of the bill, and volumetric charge based on water use, currently about 30% of the bill.
“Over the next four years, these percentages will gradually shift to a 50/50, fixed-to-volumetric ratio,”
a city news release states. “This shift to a greater amount of the fee based upon water usage will allow customers to pay significantly lower fees if they
reduce their water use.”
To that end, the city seeks to have Bill 60 reviewed by the Council this month for possible approval by January — a timeline ahead of the Council’s annual budget process that begins around March for fiscal year 2026.
The Council held the first of three readings for Bill 60 on Nov. 7.
At the meeting, Council Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina said, “Whenever you have significant increases in any proposals, you have to have an ample educational awareness campaign, not just for the City Council, but for the community.”
Under questioning, city Environmental Services Deputy Director Michael O’Keefe told the Council, “The sewer fee increase is something we’ve been working on for about 12 months or so.”
“As a part of that process, we convened an advisory group of community members and stakeholders of about 35 individuals,” he added. “We’ve been meeting with them once every month or once every six weeks or so since May.”
He said that group includes members of “six or seven neighborhood boards” and “from our regulators, from our engineering community, from the hospitality industry, from the nonprofit sector, and the list goes on.”
“That group has had significant input on and in the development of the rates and the structures included in this proposed bill,” O’Keefe said.
He added that the group has held six meetings, but
a seventh is planned at the end of November.
“In addition to that, the director and myself are making our rounds to all of the neighborhood boards on the island,” he said. “And that process is ongoing” through January.
O’Keefe said the city also will convene two town hall meetings related to sewer fee increases, including one in Kapolei on Monday.
However, Council member Radiant Cordero objected to approving new fee hikes ahead of the city’s next budget cycle, adding that as the Council’s Budget Committee chair, she felt “strapped.”
“Because at the same time if we don’t do it, we’ll have to look at funding in other parts of our budget,” she said. “Is that fair to say?”
In response, O’Keefe said, “Kind of, because the wastewater program is designed to be independent and self-
sufficient of the (city’s) general fund.”
“So the money we take
in can only be used for our purposes, which is to design, build, operate and maintain the wastewater
infrastructure,” he said.
“And as far as the timing goes, we did look at doing this a couple of years ago,” he added. “The rates wouldn’t have been a lot dissimilar from what they are right now, but we were also coming out of COVID. We didn’t want to kind of layer that on our customers at that time, and so now is really the best time to put this forward.”
Chair Tommy Waters said he was concerned that “the community doesn’t really know what’s going on as far as what it is that you do, and why we’re doing it.”
To that end, Waters said before the Board of Water Supply raised potable water rates in 2023, “they talked to the neighborhood boards every month, for six to eight months, to the point where (they) saturated the community with information.”
“I think if people understand that it is a necessity — it’s law basically, it’s a mandate — and how much it’s going to cost,” the public will take notice, Waters said. “And I’m surprised there
aren’t more people here today testifying on this measure, but once they get their bill, they’re going to be
upset.”
Waters also asked whether the proposed sewer fee hikes actually would raise $2.4 billion.
O’Keefe replied, “Not exactly, but that’s included in the reasons why we’re raising the rates,” and noted the $2.5 billion for Sand Island is part of the overall $10.1 billion capital improvement program between 2025 and 2040.
“And so there are revenue requirements associated with paying for that
$10.1 billion, plus just paying for our day-to-day (operations and maintenance) expenses,” O’Keefe said.
Members of the public told the Council sewer fee hikes were either warranted or totally unwanted.
During virtual testimony, Donald Sakamoto of Kaneohe said the proposed fee hikes will hit lower-income families hard. “Especially for people on a fixed income like me, it’s very hard,” he added.
Submitted as written testimony, Honolulu resident Lanning Lee said, “Already strapped families, especially those living paycheck to paycheck as I do, are
being driven toward
homelessness.”
“As a retiree, born and raised in Honolulu, I’m already at the financial edge. Right now, at 70, I’m looking at going back to work so I can stay in my home,” Lee wrote. “Please do what you can to defeat this bill and any others that raise our cost of living to the point of impoverishment.”
Conversely, Kaneohe resident Robert Gould said Bill 60 was “an opportunity to rewrite sewer charge rules and make them more equitable and sensible.”
“The current system of charging is frankly dishonest, and that is intentional,” he said in written testimony. “People will be much more willing to accept increases in charges if they believe the system to be fair and not a ripoff.”
The Council voted 8-0, with Augie Tulba absent, to advance Bill 60 for committee review.
