EPA inspectors \u201chave identified potential health and safety concerns due to failure to properly operate and maintain equipment,\u201d the order states. The health concerns are not just to the public who may be exposed to the spills, but also \u2013 and perhaps especially \u2013 to the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the whole sewage collection system is bad shape. The EPA inspectors found that the county \u201cdoes not have a program in place to systematically repair, rehabilitate, or replace its aging force mains prior to failure. Based on age, many force mains appear to be reaching their end of life and failure may result in significant spill volumes. \u2026 A review of sewage spills from the sewer collection systems since 2016 indicates that large spills have occurred primarily due to debris blockage, overflows at pump stations (especially during large storm events), ruptures in force mains, and corrosions. From 2017 to December 2022, nine such spills of more than 1,000 gallons of untreated sewage occurred, including one spill of nearly 70,000 gallons in Papa\u02bbikou (due to a blocked sewer), 400,000 gallons of sewage spilled, again at Papa\u02bbikou (caused by heavy rain), a 41,000-gallon spill from a manhole at Waianuenue and Laimana streets near the Hilo High, Intermediate, and Elementary schools (caused by blockage in the sewer line), and around 28,000 gallons spilled from the sewer line along Banyan drive, in the heart of Hilo\u2019s hotel district.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The county\u2019s director of environmental management, Ramsi Mansour, answered council members\u2019 questions at the February 20 hearing. He informed the council that already, by the time the agreement is signed, \u201csome projects are almost 60, 70 percent complete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve introduced project management scheduling,\u201d he said, with the complete 1,000-page schedule detailing hundreds of different milestones to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Council chair Heather Kimball asked corporation counsel Elizabeth Strance to explain the legal context of the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe process for developing this AOC [Administrative Order on Consent] took months, if not over a year. The discussions started very early in this administration. There had been a number of violations of various federal laws, so the county was faced with potential lawsuits being filed\u201d by the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s good and bad to the agreement,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe EPA is going to work with the county to assure compliance rather sue. \u2026 It\u2019s within the [EPA\u2019s] administrative enforcement branch, so it\u2019s not a lawsuit, but it could lead to a lawsuit if the county doesn\u2019t follow guidelines. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not a one-and-done kind of agreement. It\u2019s going to involve a very concerted effort and commitment of resources from the county through 2035, so this is not an insignificant commitment on the part of the county. If the county did nothing, we would probably be in a federal lawsuit right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n County finance director Deanna Sako addressed council members\u2019 questions about how the county would be financing these improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of you may remember that we\u2019ve been coming in for about $100 million in wastewater bond authorizations every nine to twelve months,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been focused first on the Hilo wastewater treatment plant, which is the first major milestone we\u2019re going to reach in terms of construction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the bond authorizations need to be in place, she explained, the county won\u2019t be drawing down on that until the money is needed to pay for specific expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mansour added that the EPA has said it will assist the county in identifying sources of financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AOC is just one aspect of the county\u2019s efforts to address wastewater issues throughout the county. The Department of Environmental Management has retained a consultant to help it prepare a full integrated wastewater management plan, which is to address not only the issues identified in the AOC, but also how to drive down the number of cesspools, especially along the Kona Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to working with the EPA, the county also is in settlement talks with Earthjustice, representing a group that has sued the county in federal court over its operation of the Kealakehe wastewater treatment plant. The group, Hui M\u0101lama Honok\u014dhau, has sued to force the county to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the plant, which drains effluent indirectly into Honok\u014dhau Harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, the first settlement talks were held. Another session is scheduled for March 11. If talks are unproductive, a non-jury trial is set for November 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Patricia Tummons<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hawaiʻi County administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have agreed on a consent order that is intended to address the many serious operational issues at three of the county’s wastewater plants on the windward side of the Big Island. … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[522,341],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-15803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2024","category-pollution","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Hilo-WWTP.jpg\")
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