Action needed
Did you know there is no sewer line available for one mile on Ali‘i Drive from Queen Kalama south to Makolea Street, across from the entry to Kahalu‘u Beach Park? The Hawaii County Council’s Finance Committee is meeting this today, Wednesday and Thursday to amend the mayor’s proposed budget for 2023-24. The goal is to get this sewer line extension project as a line item in the budget.
There are 69-plus cesspools and 14 septic tanks along Ali‘i Drive and more mauka in the Kahalu‘u area. There are no sewer lines for one mile on Ali‘i Drive from Kahalu‘u Beach (at Makolea Street) and north to Queen Kalama. Sewage pollutes the ocean when it seeps through the porous volcanic/sand at high tides.
Septic tanks are not the answer — the leach lines put urine and polluting household chemicals directly into the soil. Septic tanks can fill up at king tides or tsunamis and overflow. The best way to protect the bay is to get the one mile of sewer line “shovel-ready.”
Our goal is to get a line item for funding an environmental assessment and engineering studies to be able to figure the project cost in the coming year’s budget. This is necessary to get the project “shovel-ready” to apply for federal and state funding. We have been talking to elected officials for more than 20 years, through four administration changes. Nothing! Now is the time to get this done!
Please send an email to Mayor Mitch Roth, the Hawaii County Council, Director of Environmental Management Ramzi Mansour, Deputy Managing Director Bobby Command and Deanna Sako, director of finance, and ask them to include line item for funding in the 2023-24 budget to get an environmental impact statement and the engineering drawings completed to estimate the cost to extend and connect the sewer line for Ali‘i Drive and to protect our ocean water and citizens’ health from cesspool pollution.
You can send an email to these email addresses: MitchD.Roth@hawaiicounty.gov, Ramzi.Mansour@hawaiicounty.gov, RobertH.Command@hawaiicounty.gov, counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov, Deanna.Sako@hawaiicounty.gov.
Debbie Hecht
Kailua-Kona
All about tourism
As I’m slapping my neck to get the fire ants off, I ask myself: How did this happen?
When I look on to my neighbors’ coffee farm and see the coffee berry borer traps, I ask: How did this happen?
When I look at my Sharwil avocado trees’ brown leaves and burned fruit laying on the ground from the lace bug infestation, I ask: How did this happen?
When I lay in bed at night listening to the coqui frogs outside my window, I know how this happened.
It happened because our state government cares nothing about farms and only about tourist numbers.
Why when you fly to the mainland, you must have your bags go through a machine for agriculture inspection, but when you fly to Hawaii, it’s … aloha to bring lots of money and whatever invasive species that have hitched a ride in your bag. And please except our apology for asking you to fill out the paper so we can calculate the tourist numbers. And remember suntan lotion is bad for the coral reefs.
What you gonna do for the farmers?
David Miller
Captain Cook
