Oahu maintains rental restrictions
HONOLULU — As other Hawaii counties prepare to loosen restrictions on vacation rentals in anticipation of the reopening of trans-Pacific tourism, Oahu rentals remain under health restrictions imposed at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s emergency orders prohibit Oahu’s vacation rentals from operating as essential businesses.
“Illegal rentals remain a problem on Oahu,” said Caldwell, who wants to determine the impact of modifying quarantine rules for visitors from outside the state before agreeing to lift the rental restriction.
“I would not want to see violators in our communities, where it is more difficult to monitor them,” he said.
The mayors of Kauai, the Big Island and Maui temporarily shuttered vacation rentals because of the pandemic. But they began allowing legal vacation rentals to reopen June 16 for guests who no longer have to undergo quarantine.
The timing coincided with Gov. David Ige lifting a mandatory 14-day quarantine for interisland passengers.
A 14-day quarantine for out-of-state passengers remains in effect through July 31, and Ige is expected to extend the rule. Yet passengers with approved negative COVID-19 tests taken within 72 hours of their departure for Hawaii can bypass the quarantine beginning Aug. 1.
Larry Bartley of Save Oahu’s Neighborhoods said he has received comments from residents about illegal vacation rentals filling up again and that some tourists staying in the units are not following quarantine rules.
Andreea Grigore, vice president of property management for Elite Pacific Properties, said vacation rentals are not being treated equally with other businesses in the accommodations sector.
EPA fines
state library system $144K
HONOLULU — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessed nearly $144,000 in penalties against the Hawaii State Public Library System for continued use of large-capacity cesspools.
The library system is seeking authority from state lawmakers to pay the penalties for using the cesspools.
Large-capacity cesspools were banned in 2005 under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. More than 3,600 large-capacity cesspools in Hawaii have been closed since then, although the EPA said hundreds more remain in operation.
Mallory Fujitani, special assistant to State Librarian Stacey Aldrich, said the office first learned about the illegal cesspools in 2017 when an EPA inspector visited the Waialua Public Library on Oahu.
The same inspector visited the Kealakekua Public Library on Hawaii Island later that year and identified prohibited cesspools at both facilities.
The library system set aside health and safety funding to begin planning and design work to close out the cesspools and replace them with legally allowable wastewater systems, Fujitani said.
Construction bids were opened in late May, but Fujitani declined to say how much the work will cost because the contract has not been finalized.
