It’s all but impossible to make Oahu taxpayers happy about looming increases in sewer fees. The real pain of the newest set proposed under the Honolulu City Council’s Bill 60 would not be felt immediately. But over the course of a decade, these hikes would boost fees by 115% in the end, increases needed to fund critical system improvements.

That hurts. Even though the fees have not increased since 2016 the idea of them more than doubling in that time is a hard pill to swallow. As a result, people need a full understanding of why the improvements are so necessary, and they need to trust that the money is being spent effectively.

All that said, this is medicine that Oahu almost certainly has to take. The capital improvement program for the city Department of Environmental Services will cost $10.1 billion between this year and 2040, the largest single project being the $2.5 billion final phase of the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade, which must be completed by 2035.

That’s because the overhaul of that facility is part of a 2010 federal consent decree, an order stemming from a settlement between the city, the state Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Under the decree, Honolulu was found to have illegal sewer overflows throughout its collection system and violations in effluent discharges from Sand Island as well as its other large plant at Honouliuli, the latter of which completed its mandated improvements last May.

Taken together, the upgrades are ordered to prevent the discharge of millions of gallons from its sewer system and to add secondary treatment of about 100 million gallons a day at its two largest treatment plants.

Resolution 24-287, a recent effort by former Councilmember Calvin Say to postpone or terminate commitments of the decree to save money, was adopted, but city officials believe the change in terms in a legally binding agreement would be hard to accomplish.

That’s undoubtedly true, but the public deserves an explanation about why the present course of action must continue. There is so much on the plate left to complete, officials said, including upgrading infrastructure to cope with climate change and sea-level rise, that an increase in fees seems inevitable.

For example, the push for more housing, requiring increasing city population density in urban zones, is going to require increased sewer capacity, and that can be seen as a factor as well.

The fixes, according to descriptions from the city, are systemic. The consent decree work is the most immediate, but they also include a pump station and rehabilitation, reconstruction and replacement projects for the gravity sewer system in the fairly near term, pretty basic improvements.

How the costs are to be borne fairly by Oahu residents, however, is a subject for legitimate discussion. And there’s a lot to bear. In the first six years of the program, the largest rate increase of 9% will be implemented, followed by 8%, 7%, 6% and 5% in the last four years. By July 2034, the average monthly sewer bill will be $248.53, which is 124.1% higher than the average customer pays now.

The public needs to hear about the help that will be available through a proposed customer assistance program, ensuring that those in most need of help will receive it.

All of this means the public outreach efforts by the city, the most recent being a town hall meeting Monday at Kalanianaole Beach Park, should continue well into 2025. People tend to postpone thinking about bills until the last moment; in this case, they must insist on being kept in the loop.