Facing sanctions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and striving to keep Kailua Bay clean, Hawaii County is undertaking a $6.5 million sewer project mauka of Kuakini Highway in an area residents have dubbed “Hamburger Hill.”
The Lono Kona sewer system improvement district will include 145 assessment units on 110 lots. Lot owners will be assessed an estimated $9,090 per single-family equivalent unit. The county plans to use bonds to finance the project and will allow property owners to make annual payments of about $498 per single-family equivalent.
A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at the West Hawaii Civic Center. If more than half the property owners object in writing to the new district prior to the end of the meeting, creating the district will be postponed for at least six months, unless all owners withdraw their protest.
Environmental Management Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd said the lot owners generally favor the project; in fact, they were the ones who came to the county and asked for it. At least one owner of a gang cesspool there has been fined by the EPA, and other gang cesspool owners are also liable, she said.
In addition to the bond financing, the county is seeking a $4 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Grant to help defray the costs. The county plans to pick up the assessments for $294,526 for 10 properties owned by qualifying nonprofits.
North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff said the project has been a long time in the making. She said she worked on legislation creating the project when she was an aide to former Councilman Angel Pilago.
“I think it’s really important that we move forward on this project, and time is of the essence,” Eoff said. “It took a long time to get to this point.”
Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha, whose district the project is in, agrees that getting the sewer system on the Kona Coast is long overdue.
“It’s so close to Kailua Bay. It’s definitely a concern,” Kanuha said, adding the county shouldn’t stop there.
“We need to go all the way down Alii Drive,” he said. “We need to stop whatever is leaching down to the bay, where people go to swim and where the keiki play.”