Experts say cesspool conversion too costly for most
Working group advises moving up deadline for converting priority areas
Most Hawaii residents will be “financially burdened” with cesspool upgrade requirements, even as members of a task force urge the state to move up the deadline from 2050 to 2030 to convert cesspools in the most crucial areas.
About 22 percent of households in Maui County have cesspools, and about 98 percent of Maui residents and 100 percent of Molokai residents cannot afford the conversions based on average annual income, said Cari Ishida of Carollo Engineers.
Hawaii County would have the greatest affordability challenges — it has the most cesspools of all the counties, but the least access to centralized sewers. In Kauai County, 54 percent of households have cesspools and 95 percent would not be able to afford the conversions.
Oahu is the most affluent, but has significant poverty, Ishida added.
Still, Ted Bohlen, a Cesspool Conversion Working Group member and former deputy attorney general, said “if we wait until 2050, we aren’t going to get the job done and we need to do the job.”
“Pollution threatens all the reefs in Hawaii and fresh water by 2050, and we depend on our water for our shoreline, for our economy, for our way of life in Hawaii,” he added. “So it’s very important that we undertake this process of upgrading cesspools now.”
That’s why the team of state and county professionals studied the issue for four years and shared their findings during a joint meeting Wednesday of the House Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection and the Senate Committee on Agriculture & Environment.
Hawaii has more than 80,000 cesspools that release more than 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the groundwater and surface waters every day statewide, according to the Legislature. In 2017, lawmakers passed Act 125 requiring that all cesspools be converted by 2050.
Act 132 the following year established the Cesspool Conversion Working Group, tasked with researching technology options, collecting data and studying finances, as well as developing a long-range, comprehensive plan for the conversion of all cesspools statewide by 2050.
The working group includes representatives from the state Department of Health, the University of Hawaii Sea Grant, county wastewater divisions, county departments of Environmental Management, Coral Reef Alliance, Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology and others.
Cesspools are an antiquated technology to dispose of untreated sewage, which can pollute coral reefs, streams, coastal waters and drinking water, posing a significant threat to the environment and to human health, according to DOH.
There are multiple alternatives to convert cesspools, which is dependent on location, density, ecology, lay of the land and many other factors.
But the costs are among the biggest barriers. Roughly, the low-end construction and installation costs for a basic cesspool conversion model is calculated at $10,000 with a monthly maintenance cost of $94, according to Ishida. The high-end scenario for complex upgrades are around $38,000 with monthly fees of $339.
In total, about 94 percent of Hawaii residents wouldn’t be able to afford the costs, Ishida said. Even a hypothetical $10,000 rebate program would only reduce the burden to about 82 percent of cesspool owners.
“Clearly we saw that there is a large burden of affordability for these conversions. There’s also a large funding gap,” she said. “There needs to be a coordination of legislative efforts and we need to identity viable financial mechanisms.”
Roughly 8 percent of Maui is listed as priority 1
(highest priority), which includes areas along West and South Maui; about 12 percent is priority 2, which includes some areas in West and South Maui, but mostly the section between Kahului and Kahakuloa; and the remaining 79 percent are priority 3 areas, the majority in the Upcountry region, said UH research hydrologist Christopher Shuler.
The majority of Hawaii island is in priority 3 areas, while the majority of Oahu is under priority 1. Most of Kauai’s cesspools are in priority 2 areas.
Because the islands do not have the capacity to replace all the cesspools at once, even if there were enough funding, it would require a segmented approach with a focus on the priority areas, he added.
For example, there are about 12,000 homes and community facilities serving an area population of almost 31,000 people in Upcountry, according to a 2019 report by UH’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Resources Research Center, and Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management.
This priority 3 region located farthest from the coastline relies on 10,040 on-site sewage disposal systems for domestic wastewater disposal. Of these, more than 7,400 are cesspools that release an estimated 4.4 million gallons per day of untreated wastewater.
The working group included about 26 recommendations for the Legislature moving forward. Bohlen went over just a few key ones on Wednesday, including:
≤ Moving up the 2050 deadline for priority 1 areas across Hawaii (13,821 cesspools) to be converted by 2030 and priority 2 areas (12,367 cesspools) converted by 2035. Priority 3 areas (55,237 cesspools) could still be converted by 2050.
≤ Maximizing federal funding options where available to offset the cost of conversion, such as applying for grants, tax credits and low-interest loans, as well as funds under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other federal sources.
≤ Reallocating state and county resources, generating new revenue to supplement other financing programs and homeowners’ dollars, facilitating financing options to assist lowand moderate-income homeowners in converting, as well as offering incentives for cesspool conversion for all homeowners. Or, enabling nonprofits and community development financial institutions to help cesspool owners access available funding through the Clean Water State Revolving Funds.
And, because cesspool conversion is a large endeavor, the working group suggested that each county develop a comprehensive, integrated wastewater management plan; establish a cesspool branch under the DOH with at least three to four staff to work on cesspool conversions planning, implementation, permitting and regulatory framework; and increase administrative capacity as needed for cesspool conversion on state lands.
Roger Babcock, director of environmental services of the City and County of Honolulu, said that there will be a big need for contractors, operators and engineers.
Outreach and education should be happening now, too, Babcock said. Successful conversion programs in other states have utilized comprehensive outreach strategies that educate homeowners on conversion options and resources.
“This is a partnership. It has to be, not one entity can take care of the funding,” said Energy & Environmental Protection Committee Chairperson Elle Cochran, who represents House District 14 on Maui. “I’m happy to hear about the increased building up on the workforce because that’s so important.”