KAILUA-KONA — There’s something in the water at Ookala.
And, if residents’ suspicions are right, it’s not good.
“It looks like wastewater has been let go,” said Hawaii County Council Chairwoman Valerie Poindexter, whose district includes Ookala, which sits on the northeastern side of the island.
Poindexter has called a community meeting and roundtable meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday next to the Ookala Post Office to discuss concerns about the runoff that flows into the community in the wake of heavy storms.
“It’s been happening frequently,” she said. “So we’re concerned about where that runoff is coming from.”
Some residents are putting the blame at the feet of Big Island Dairy, a commercial dairy farm of about 2,500 acres near the community, which some in the area say isn’t being a good neighbor by allegedly letting wastewater from the farm run into gulches that flow past the community.
“The runoff that comes down from the dairy is disgusting,” said Charlene Nishida who owns property in the area. “It’s brown, it’s mucky, it’s foamy, it smells. It’s not the normal water that you would see as run off from rain.”
Dairy management, though, says they’ve already taken action to reduce the possibility of discharging any waste from the dairy into waterways, such as construction of a barrier on the downgrade border of the property. They also point to state agency investigations and reports that found “no definitive evidence that Big Island Dairy discharged wastewater from its lagoon system,” according to a letter from the state’s Department of Health.
“Part of our mission statement is to maintain a clean and healthy environment, and to be a credit to the community,” said general manager Brad Duff, who said he plans to attend the meeting. “We try to be as good as neighbors as possible.”
The chairwoman called a similar meeting back in September after one particularly bad flooding event. Flash floods at that time sent muddy water down from the dairy, across Highway 19 and into Ookala. At the meeting, a resident reported getting 2 inches of mud in their backyard, according to a Hawaii Tribune-Herald article.
At that same meeting, Duff told the crowd the mudslides happened because a plot of land had been recently cleared and there was no crop cover to retain the soil, news files state.
Poindexter said there are two main issues on the agenda for the upcoming meeting.
First, she said, is for the dairy to provide an update on efforts to divert water runoff.
Duff last week told West Hawaii Today that they’ve installed a buffer of guinea grass along the downhill boundary of the property. That buffer is intended to prevent future slides from the dairy’s croplands.
Furthermore, Duff said a vacuum tank, referred to as a honeywagon, at the property will intercept wastewater after the first step of separating out solids before it moves into lagoons on the property.
There are two lagoons on the dairy property with a combined capacity of 3.5 million gallons.
The honeywagon, he said, “could reduce effluent to the lagoon by about 10,000 gallons a day.”
The lagoons, according to a report from the State Department of Health, collect wastewater produced at the dairy after solids have been removed through a multi-step process at the facility. All of the manure generated there is recovered and used to fertilize crops or create bedding in cow pens.
Duff said all wastewater from the milking barn and free stalls is contained within those lagoons. Wastewater from the pastures isn’t, he said.
He added that the entire reason for the lagoons is so wastewater can be contained until dry weather returns and it can be used on farm grounds.
“Since the date of the report,” he added, “dry weather has returned and the lagoon water level has been lowered significantly.”
The other reason for the meeting, Poindexter said, is to address the issue of water that continues to come down the gulches in the area.
Poindexter said a test for bacteria in the water counted 250-260 strains of e. coli before it stopped counting.
She said even after the gulches stopped running, there still remain sitting puddles of water.
“And I’ve had calls several months ago from fishermen saying they can no longer fish down on the cliff areas by Ookala because it is so contaminated,” she said.
She said it’s been reported to the Department of Health but “nothing keeps happening.”
“Something’s gotta be done,” she said. “And maybe it’s not their kuleana, but we need to find out whose kuleana it is.”
On Feb. 27, the state’s Department of Health Clean Water Branch wrote to the manager of Big Island Dairy, saying that while there was no definitive evidence of the dairy putting out wastewater from its lagoon system, inspectors found a high potential for that to happen if its capacity is exceeded.
And if that happens without a permit, those discharges would be considered illegal, inspectors stated. Discharging pollutants, the document adds, carries a penalty of up to $25,000 per day per violation.
Poindexter, who said she isn’t certain where the water is coming from, said regardless of who is responsible, it’s a problem that needs fixing.
“We just need to resolve the issue,” she said. “And whoever is to blame, we need to hold them accountable.”
The runoff also “busted up” Old Cemetery Road in the community, Nishida said, which she relies on to get to her property.
Immediately after the flooding, she said, county officials came out for an immediate response to do some assessments and cleanup.
“But they’ve never come back — and it’s been a long time — to finish the repair of the section of the road that we need to get access to,” said Nishida.
And back-and-forth over who’s responsible, she said, isn’t bringing up a solution.
“The reality is the dairy has caused the problem and they’re not stepping up to the plate and doing their part and they’re pointing the finger at the county,” said Nishida. “And the county is saying ‘Hey, it’s the dairy’s responsibility, so we’re just going to do the minimum that’s required.’”
Poindexter said she has invited the chief of the county’s Public Works Highway Maintenance Division to attend the meeting.
Barett Otani, information and education specialist for Public Works, said the road in question “is not a public road.”
“It is basically a one lane driveway on a county owned parcel acquired from (a) sugar company,” he said. “There is no right-of-way and there are no plans to do repairs at this time.”