Sewer woes raise doubts for Kakaako

Something doesn’t smell quite right in Kakaako, which is a sure sign of a far worse problem down the line, and in an area that’s supposed to be reborn as a new jewel of Honolulu waterfront life.

On Wednesday, the City Council was greeted by a rush of testimony, uniformly supportive of its resolution seeking more information about chronic problems with sewage odor wafting through multiple streets in the district.

Resolution 13-267, heard by the Committee on Public Works and Sustainability, needs to pass promptly to gain answers from the city’s Department of Environmental Services within 30 days. The Council wants to know what every present and potential resident of Kakaako is waiting to hear: the cause and cure of the problem.

In particular, the department must answer the resolution’s final question: Why are conditional approvals being given to connect up to 5,000 new residential units to the sewer lines until the other mystery has been solved? The Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that has oversight over Kakaako’s redevelopment, needs more definitive guidance before it issues its own approvals for such large projects.

In some areas, such as the intersection of Auahi and Keawe streets, the pavement has been torn up for weeks, and the casual passerby might assume that the source of the odor is a temporary one.

HCDA has indicated that the Ala Moana Pumping Station makai of Ala Moana Boulevard may be a principal source, and the Council rightly has pressed the department to explain what’s going on there, as well.

But a review of concerns raised at last week’s hearing — some from long-term residents who live in different corners of the district — suggests that there could be more fundamental problems, and that they encompass a wider area than a few intersections or focal points.

For example, Curtis Street resident Webster Nolan told Council members that he has tracked the problem over his years of living and working in the district.

"The foul odors that disturbed residents and workers at the foot of South Street a few years ago have now spread to the Ward Center area and are coming closer to the South and Kapiolani neighborhood where I live," he said in prepared testimony. "This clearly indicates that the systemic problems are worsening and that patchwork repairs are no longer adequate."

It’s a relief to see that the wastewater division of the Department of Design and Construction has joined with Environmental Services on a task force that hired R.M. Towill Corp., the engineering firm, to study the problem.

Guy Inouye, the division’s assistant chief, said there is a focus on a few "trouble spots," including the area near South and Auahi streets by One Waterfront Towers, and at the Ala Moana end of Queen Street, near the Hokua condominium. He did add that the city is looking at Kakaako as a whole, which is key: That analysis should take a sufficiently broad view of the problem to yield a comprehensive solution.

Inouye said the current plan is to run a fan test near the Ala Moana Pumping Station to draw out foul air and then measure air pressure through utility ports around the region. That should show how widespread an area is affected by the odor problems at the pumping station and allow fresh air to take the place of the odor, he said.

The test is due to happen at the end of December or early next year, with a plan ready for Council consideration in the spring.

But in the meantime, the Council needs to grill the administration on what any of this means for the capacity of Kakaako sewers to handle what ultimately will be an enormous influx of new residents and commercial tenants. The resolution cites HCDA projections that what is now a relatively sparsely populated urban zone could see more than 20,000 additional dwelling units by 2030.

As the Council noted in its legislation, the federal consent decree adopted in 2010 compelled massive upgrades in Oahu’s wastewater collection system, for which $34 million has been appropriated since 2007.

The question must be: Will the city’s historically troubled sewer system be up to the task of accommodating Kakaako’s new residents? At this stage, the public has reason for some healthy skepticism on the issue.