‘Acute Problems’ Plaguing Big Island’s Wastewater Treatment Systems Prompt EPA Crackdown

Birds make a home in the lagoon system where wastewater is treated in Kealakehe. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)

A newly signed consent order will force county officials to make multimillion-dollar upgrades to treatment plants and take steps to eliminate large cesspools

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Hawaii County have reached an agreement intended to correct an array of longstanding problems with aging, ill-maintained wastewater treatment plants on the Big Island.

The administrative consent order took effect on March 26 with the signature of Amy Miller-Bowen, EPA enforcement and compliance assurance division director for Region 9. The order sets strict timelines for the county to repair treatment plants in Hilo, Kulaimano, Papaikou and Kealakehe, take steps to eliminate large cesspools and expand county sewer service to homes that lack it.

…it was probably the worst treatment plant I had ever seen.

Amy Miller-Bowen, EPA

In an interview on Friday, Miller-Bowen said inspections she and her team conducted turned up “acute problems” in the Hilo, Kulaimano and Papaikou plants. The 26-page consent order repeatedly uses terms like severely corroded, inoperable and out of service to describe the current state of the treatment plants.

Describing the Hilo facility, Miller-Bowen said, “it was probably the worst treatment plant I had ever seen.”  

Inspectors were concerned that a catastrophic failure of the plant was possible.

Ramzi Mansour, Hawaii County director of environmental management, said the problems predate the administration of Mayor Mitch Roth, which he joined in 2020 from the City and County of Honolulu, and stemmed from deferred maintenance, lack of properly trained personnel and other issues.

…the wastewater plant could turn into Hawaii’s “next Red Hill”

Mayor Mitch Roth

“These facilities have been ignored for years,” Mansour said.

In remarks to the Legislature in January, Roth described the Hilo plant’s condition as “really terrible.”

Unless investments are made to fix the problems, the wastewater plant could turn into Hawaii’s “next Red Hill,” Roth said. He was referring to the Navy’s underground storage fuel facility on Oahu where fuel leaks contaminated […]

Full article: www.civilbeat.org