In a field of reddish brown lava rock mauka of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Honokohau Harbor is an unexpected oasis of green.
Surrounded by chain link fence is a little pond fringed by greenery. The pond is fed by a white pipeline, from which water gushes out at a rate of about 1.5 million gallons daily. This site, not far from the Kealakehe Police Station, is the destination of the sewage treated at the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant in Kona and one West Hawaii resident is hoping to see it closed down sooner rather than later.
Stephen Holmes, a former councilman for the City and County of Honolulu, said a federal judge’s ruling regarding the use of injection wells in Lahaina has significant consequences for Hawaii County and the Kealakehe plant.
“This isn’t even an injection well,” he said. “This is even worse.”
In that case, Maui County did not have a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit, and the plaintiffs showed that fluids put in injection wells ended up in coastal waters. The federal judge overseeing that case ruled the lack of permit violated the U.S. Clean Water Act. Hawaii County also does not have that national pollution permit, although state and county officials said it was not required for the discharge site.
Alec Wong, Clean Water Branch program manager for the state Department of Health, said the discharge isn’t near a surface water source.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which Holmes contacted last week to inform them of the situation, is investigating his complaint, a spokesman said Monday.
Holmes, citing a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report, said the Kealakehe effluent ends up in Honokohau Harbor.
That’s not what a dye test showed 10 years ago, though, Environmental Management Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd said Friday. She said the county is operating within the terms of its permit for the plant.
The county has planned to treat the discharge, also called effluent, to a reusable standard, designated R1, for years. The plan has always been to then pipe that water to various points in North Kona, including Old Kona Airport Park and the long-anticipated Kealakehe Regional Park. A number of things have kept that from happening, Leithead Todd said.
“We have a long-range plan,” Leithead Todd said. “We’ve always committed to the upgrade. Nothing happens overnight.”
That’s part of Holmes’ point, though, he said Thursday. County officials have intended to build a reclamation plant for the water, as well as the transmission lines, for nearly two decades but haven’t done it yet, he said. Even if they start now, they’re looking at years of environmental planning, as well as project design.
He was particularly concerned about Hawaii County not taking action to secure about $16 million of a state revolving fund via the Department of Health to pay for the system upgrade. Holmes approached a number of county officials, including Managing Director Wally Lau, North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff and Mayor Bill Kenoi, about that funding.
Leithead Todd said Friday the county does have the commitment for the revolving fund money.
Eoff said she understands the frustration at the slow pace of improvements at the plant. The issue is one of her top concerns for the district, she said Monday. She also said she appreciated Holmes for bringing up the issue, which she said helped her get a meeting last week with Lau, Leithead Todd and several other administration officials.
“Although we wish it could be happening sooner, we are on a path to reusable water,” she said. “It is frustrating, because we do need to take care of this as soon as we can.”
Holmes said the problems aren’t just environmental — although the location mauka of the harbor and a national park do highlight the potential environmental concerns. He sees the loss of the water is a waste of resources.
“This is not wise water resource management,” Holmes said. “They’re pouring money in the ground.”
Leithead Todd agreed that the water is a “precious” commodity. But she said her department has been toiling under other federal and state orders to resolve other issues, particularly the closure of large-capacity cesspools around the island, and just hasn’t had the resources to take on the wastewater treatment issue. She has had, effectively, two engineers in the department, she said.
Compounding the problem is the county’s plan to lay the transmission lines to the parks where the water will be used during the construction of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening project, which has been stalled for five years. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to designate parts of West Hawaii, including an area that includes the site for the West Hawaii Regional Park, as critical habitat for a number of plant species has also slowed work on the treatment plant upgrades.
Before the upgrades can go into place, Leithead Todd added, the county needs to complete an $18 million sludge removal project at the plant. That work, which will also allow the plant to operate at its intended 5.1 million gallons per day capacity, is hamstrung by the need to accommodate the nesting and breeding seasons of an endangered Hawaiian bird that lives near the plant, she said.
Holmes is aware of all of the challenges. He said he wants to see officials begin to take steps to fix the problem. If they don’t, Holmes may help them along. He is in the early stages of initiating a lawsuit against the county, claiming it is in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.