Hawaii County has developed a broad proposal to develop wastewater infrastructure throughout Puna in order to wean the district off of cesspools.
In a draft environmental impact statement published last week, the county Department of Environmental Management explains that there are no wastewater collection or treatment facilities in the district, and there were an estimated 16,000 cesspools in the region discharging more than 8.5 million gallons of sewage daily in 2010.
After the state Legislature passed a law in 2017 requiring that all cesspools in the state be converted to more environmentally friendly systems — such as a sewer system or a septic treatment unit — DEM began developing a plan to construct a districtwide waste treatment system.
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 subregions 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.
DEM Director Ramzi Mansour said the EIS isn’t intended to declare a preference for a specific alternative, but rather to communicate to the community different options for wastewater services.
“Part of the grant requirements is that we have to propose alternatives,” Mansour said. “The whole idea is to be transparent about what the options are.”
With a 45-day public comment period ongoing until June 7, Mansour said he hopes Puna community members will review the EIS and express a preference for an option that the county can pursue. Until a preferred alternative is selected, he said that details such as the estimated project cost or time frame can’t be determined.
A final EIS is expected to be published in September, Mansour said.
The draft EIS and more information about the proposal, including a video presentation, can be found at tinyurl.com/4feth3rt.
Comments can be submitted through a link at that website, or via email to Kelly.Hartman@hawaiicounty.gov.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
