Ka‘u residents have four choices for how Hawaii County could overhaul Pahala’s wastewater system, but many residents say there is only one that makes sense.
At a Thursday community meeting in Pahala to discuss the county’s ongoing project to shift rural wastewater solutions away from cesspools, the Department of Environmental Management presented attendees with four potential options to replace the community’s large-capacity cesspools, in accordance with a mandate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to do so by 2026.
Those four options were divided into two that would construct a new centralized wastewater treatment plant south of Pahala, and two that would install individual wastewater systems — septic tank systems that empty into leach fields or seepage pits — that would service each home.
Brenda Iokepa-Moses, DEM’s deputy director, said the treatment plant options are largely the same except that one would use Pahala’s existing sewer lines, while the other would install new sewer lines.
She added, however, that the existing sewer lines are of questionable quality, and Pahala resident Gary Tamondong said the sewer line beneath his property is prone to cracking.
Iokepa-Moses said that the wastewater plant, despite fitting on a relatively compact parcel, could still be expanded to support additional users if people move to the area. She added that the EPA will allow the county some leeway if the plant cannot be fully constructed by the 2026 deadline.
The other options involving individual wastewater systems are differentiated largely by how they would be administered. While both options would have the county funding the systems’ installation, only one would have the county also administering a maintenance program, while the other would leave homeowners responsible for maintenance and monitoring of their own individual wastewater systems.
That last option was subdivided further into slight variations on how those individual septic systems would be installed — one would grant homeowners a voucher with which they could hire contractors to design and build those systems to county specifications, while the other would leave design and placement decisions to the county — but attendees Thursday seemed to gravitate towards the treatment plant options.
Tamondong said the treatment plant with new sewer lines is the only option that makes sense for Pahala.
“It’s the only real option,” he said. “It’s a permanent fix, and it can fit a growing community.”
“I don’t like the individual systems because it puts it at the homeowner’s expense to fix them,” Tamondong continued, adding that the area has experienced an increasing rate of earthquakes over the last several years, which might damage individual wastewater systems.
Other attendees agreed. Resident Gayle Tavares said the treatment plant option would be a definitive, final conclusion to a longstanding issue the county has been working on for years.
“That way, it’ll just be done,” Tavares said.
Meanwhile, resident Duke Estabilio said he is worried about how the county would handle sewer fees for the treatment plant.
“Does a home where one guy lives have to pay the same as a home where 10 guys live? That’s not right,” Estabilio said.
Iokepa-Moses urged residents to fill out a survey about the matter, which will be used to develop an environmental information document that will be published in January. An implementation plan for the area will be developed shortly after that publication date.
Further information about the issue can be found at hawaiicounty.gov/departments/environmental-management/pahala-naalehu/.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.