A task force led by the state’s health director is recommending that the Legislature advance a deadline to eliminate many of the roughly 83,000 homeowner cesspools in Hawaii to protect human and environmental health, an estimated $2 billion or more endeavor.
The Cesspool Conversion Working Group, formed in 2018, recommends that a 2050 deadline to eliminate all homeowner cesspools in the state be advanced to 2030 and 2035 for 26,188 cesspools that pose higher pollution risks.
The accelerated deadline is one of many recommendations in a report recently delivered to the Legislature by the 16-member group chaired by state Health Director Elizabeth Char after four years of work.
State lawmakers established the 2050 deadline in 2017, a year after banning the installation of cesspools, to clean up the widespread practice of sending raw sewage into the ground where it can seep into groundwater, streams and the ocean.
Hawaii has more cesspools than any other state, and they release an estimated 50 million gallons of untreated effluent daily, according to the report.
Rep. Nicole Lowen, a member of the working group and chair of the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, said prioritizing the elimination of higher-risk cesspools makes good sense.
“To leave it all to 2050 will just put us in a bad situation,” she said.
Lowen (D, Kailua-Kona-Honokohau-Waikoloa) also said staggered deadlines will help spread out the expense to eliminate cesspools.
“The cost of the conversion is huge,” she said. “And we can’t afford to not convert them, either.”
The report estimates that connecting homes with cesspools to either a sewer system or on-site treatment or containment system will cost around $2 billion, or about $24,000 per conversion on average, but also notes that the actual total cost could range from $880 million to $5.3 billion.
To help address the huge expense, the report recommends that state and county officials develop programs for financial grants, tax credits and low-interest loans while also seeking federal aid.
The report describes the need to eliminate homeowner cesspools as an immediate one, with damage projected to increase as time goes by, in part from anticipated sea level rise.
“There are no benefits to human health or the environment if homeowners wait or postpone conversion until closer to the 2050 conversion deadline,” the report said.
Since 2017 only 194 homeowner cesspools have been closed despite the availability of a $10,000 income tax credit that expired two years ago, according to the report.
One recommendation in the report is for the state to require homeowners to shut down cesspools upon selling their home if sold before the deadline.
Waiting until the deadline, the report warned, will lead to permitting and supply bottlenecks while prolonging sewage pollution that is expected to threaten every reef in Hawaii by 2050 along with freshwater resources if corrective action isn’t taken soon.
The report identifies 13,821 cesspools posing the highest pollution risk and recommends they be eliminated by 2030.
Of all cesspools in this category, 37% are on Hawaii island and are concentrated around Kailua-Kona and Waikoloa.
Oahu has 35% of top-risk cesspools, and they largely run from Kaaawa to Waianae, with pockets elsewhere including Waimanalo and Ewa Beach.
Kauai has 21% of cesspools in this category, and Maui has 7%.
Another 12,367 cesspools are recommended for elimination by 2035 given conditions posing a more moderate contamination hazard.
The working group, formed at the direction of the Legislature, includes four county public works or environmental services officials, University of Hawaii researchers and environmental organization representatives. Sina Pruder, head of the Department of Health’s Wastewater Branch, and Ken Hiraki of the Hawai‘i Association of Realtors are also members.
Several members are scheduled to present the group’s findings today to the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment. The briefing is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. at the state Capitol.
Lowen said she expects multiple bills will be introduced this year to further address the issue of homeowner cesspools in Hawaii.
At the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 banned use of “large-capacity” cesspools that serve multiple residential dwellings or 20 or more persons per day in nonresidential dwellings.
Since the federal ban, more than 3,750 large-capacity cesspools in Hawaii have been closed, though the EPA continually has been identifying and often fining operators of many such cesspools that remained in use after 2005.
The state prohibition allows for Hawaii’s health director to exempt homeowners from complying with the cesspool elimination deadline, though the working group’s report does not propose any criteria for exemptions.
“All cesspools are substandard sewage disposal systems and pose some threat to their surroundings,” the report said.
SINGLE-FAMILY HOME CESSPOOLS
Island Cesspools Effluent Discharge
Hawaii 48,596 29.27 million gallons per day
Kauai 14,300 8.61 million gallons per day
Maui 11,038 6.64 million gallons per day
Oahu 7,491 4.51 million gallons per day
Molokai 1,400 0.84 million gallons per day
Total 82,825 49.87 million gallons per day
Source: Cesspool Conversion Working Group
