The city has avoided a judgment in court on the legal questions concerning its management of the Sand Island wastewater treatment plant. However, Honolulu residents continue to have a right to know what they have received in return for the … Continued
The U.S. Army runs a wastewater treatment facility at Schofield Barracks. As such facilities go, it is relatively small, treating an average of less than two million gallons of wastewater a day in dry weather. Ordinarily, it discharges into an … Continued
The privately owned sewage treatment plant serving the Hawai`i Kai area of O`ahu discharges its effluent about 1,400 feet offshore of one of the island’s most popular surfing areas, Sandy Beach. The plant’s permit, issued by the state Department of … Continued
Usually, elevated levels of metal contaminants in the water can be traced to point-source discharges from industrial sources. Not so in Hawai`i, however. With rare exceptions (such as at Schofield Barracks), metal contaminants are extremely low in the point-source discharges … Continued
One of the most striking moments in the trial of the Hawai`i Kai plant operators came on September 18. The jury had been dismissed for its lunch break after hearing yet another witness, a former employee of MEPAC presumably Services, … Continued
Lawsuits spawned by the dumping of sludge from the Hawai`i Kai sewage treatment plant will take years to litigate. The case against the individual plant operators — Charles Reeves, who pleaded guilty, and Michael Weitzenhoff and Thomas Mariani, who were … Continued
June 23, 1987. After years of planning and negotiating the maze of permits needed for major coastal undertakings, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was ready. On this day, work was to start on its biggest project to date, the … Continued
In February 1980, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Advancement of OTEC for Hawai`i reported that people attending a legislative workshop had been told that, “by 1990, OTEC plants in Hawai`i could provide as much as 660 megawatts to O`ahu.” … Continued
Since the mid-1970s, ocean thermal energy conversion has been generously supported by state funds. Federal funds, through the Department of Energy, were for a time less abundant, especially during the Reagan administration, which did not assign a high priority to … Continued