A plan to renovate the decrepit Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant is now a two-part project.
Last week, Mayor Mitch Roth announced at his State of the County address that the first phase of the plant’s long-awaited rehabilitation project is out for bid.
According to public bid documents, the first phase of the project will consist of replacements for much of the plant’s equipment, including a new headworks facility — where wastewater enters the facility — a new electrical building, new anaerobic digesters, modifications to the plant’s primary intake channel, and more. In addition, the plant’s current headworks facility will be demolished.
Mark Grant, project coordinator with the county Department of Environmental Management’s Wastewater Division, said work on the first phase is expected to begin in June and continue over a three-year period.
“Things should probably improve for Keaukaha residents, because we’ll be replacing the odor-control system, so it shouldn’t smell so bad,” Grant said.
In the meantime, the project’s second phase — which will include renovating the facility’s sedimentation tanks and improvements to the secondary waste treatment process, among other things — is currently in the design phase, and is expected to go out for bid in January 2024.
Grant said the terms of the construction require that the plant remains operational while the project is ongoing.
“Back in June of 2022, there was an assessment of the facility that showed that about 86% of the plant was in need of rehabilitation work,” Grant said, adding that as the facility ages, the chance for a catastrophic failure increases.
During a tour of the plant in February 2022, facility operations supervisor Jason Imamura estimated that 3 million gallons of sewage a day could leak into the sea at Keaukaha should the plant fail. At that time, the county estimated that it would need $100 million to replace the facility.
The Hawaii County Council Finance Committee on Tuesday will discuss a bill formally splitting the rehabilitation project into two phases and allocating $17 million in general obligation bonds to both phases, with $7 million going to the first phase, and $10 million to the second.
According to a statement by DEM Deputy Director Brenda Iokepa-Moses, the state Department of Health will issue commitment letters for further funding through the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund.
Meanwhile, a bill in the state House of Representatives which would have authorized the state to issue $50 million in general obligation bonds to rehabilitate the facility died in January when no committee would schedule it for hearing.
Email Michael Brestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
