A final environmental impact statement about the addition of wastewater treatment services for Puna was released Saturday by the state Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.
The 724-page EIS, prepared by Honolulu-based consultant AECOM Technical Services for the county Department of Environmental Management, is “pending acceptance by the accepting authority.” The accepting authority for the document is Mayor Mitch Roth.
Asked for comment about the EIS, Roth’s spokesman Cyrus Johnasen said a “a public announcement” is set for Oct. 5.
There is no county wastewater service in Puna, but state law requires all cesspools in the state be connected to a sewer system or be upgraded to a septic or aerobic treatment unit by Jan. 1, 2050. There are about 16,000 cesspools in Puna that discharge about 8.5 million gallons of untreated raw sewage effluent daily.
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz said the County Council was briefed about “high-level findings” in the EIS by representatives of DEM and AECOMM.
“The message that we got was that this plan is going to be part of a larger wastewater analysis for the entire island,” Kierkiewicz said. “My feeling and understanding is that Puna is a piece of that puzzle. But it really felt as if there were other areas … that were going to take higher precedence, based on proximity to shoreline.
“I can understand that, but at the end of the day, the questions are: What is the system, first and foremost? Is it centralized or is it decentralized? And who’s going to pay for this? Because when we think of the households in the Puna region, we’re some of the most economically disenfranchised. Folks are barely making it, as is. And to add on another cost to connect to a system, I just don’t know how folks are going to be able to afford that.”
According to the EIS, the county is considering several options for Puna, each involving a different combination of onsite, centralized and decentralized wastewater systems. Those options include:
• Alternative 1A, which would leave individual property owners and communities to develop, operate and maintain individual wastewater systems and decentralized systems. This option would construct no county infrastructure, but would allow the county to offer incentives for conversions.
• Alternative 1B, where the county would construct a low-pressure sewer system that would connect properties to a host of decentralized treatment facilities throughout the district. The county would only be responsible for the collection system, but the decentralized facilities and the connections to private properties would be managed by private entities and homeowners.
• Alternatives 2 and 3, which would develop centralized wastewater treatment plants to serve three or four sub-regions in Puna — Keaau, Hawaiian Paradise Park, Volcano and, for Alternative 3 only, Pahoa — while properties outside those plants’ service areas would use individual wastewater systems.
• Alternatives 4 and 5, where a regional treatment plant is built on an 18- to 20-acre parcel in Keaau that would either accommodate all wastewater from all properties within Puna (Alternative 5), or all properties that are not in rural or semi-rural areas, which would again use individual wastewater systems (Alternative 4).
• Alternatives 6 and 7, which would divert either some or all wastewater from Puna to the aging Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant. Alternative 7 would serve all Puna properties, while Alternative 6 would only serve those not in rural or semi-rural areas, which would use individual wastewater systems.
According to the EIS, “Assuming the first construction contracts start around 2027 and the last contracts are awarded around 2047, after 20 years, the county would need to bid and award six to eight contracts every year from 2027 through 2047 for all construction to be completed by the year 2052.”
According to the document, construction of facilities that include excavation and trenching “would need to be designed to avoid adverse impacts to groundwater.” The EIS states there is no anticipated environmental impact on surface waters “as there are no perennial streams in the project area.”
“If we’re going to be moving in the direction of wastewater treatment facilities for subdivisions or regions, let’s figure that out and let’s start thinking about who’s going to finance it,” Kierkiewicz said. “Are we going to be floating a bond for this? “There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”If we need to look for grants, we need to start now.
“This is a kakou (all of us) thing …but half the cesspools on the island are in Puna. So, we need to have a strategy to help individuals make that conversion. I think 2050 is not that far off. We really need to get on this.”
Email John Burnett a jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.