Sewage spill at Ko Olina was 200,000 gallons, city reports

City officials Thursday confirmed that an estimated 201,600 gallons of untreated sewage spilled onto about an acre of vacant land near the Ko Olina Golf Club after a sewage main broke last week.

The night of the Nov. 30 incident, the Department of Environmental Services reported “the spill volume is estimated to be more than 1,000 gallons.”

Department policy calls for a spill of 1,000 gallons or more to trigger the distribution of a news release to the media, said Markus Owens, environmental services spokesman. The department was not able to give an immediate estimate in this case because data gathered from the spill had not yet been analyzed, he said.

No subsequent release was issued the next day when it was determined approximately 201,600 gallons spilled, Owens said.

“Since the spill did not reach waterways and was contained to a confined, unimproved area, the public was in no danger,” he said. “The spill dissipated into the ground. Crews cleaned, disinfected and deodorized the area twice since the pipe has been repaired.”

City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who represents the area, said she believes city officials should have notified the public when they got a better fix on how much raw sewage had spilled, even if it posed no danger to people or the environment.

What’s more, there appears to be an increasing number of sewage breaks in the vicinity, she said. “That’s a red flag that something is wrong with the infrastructure. It’s something that needs to be fixed by the city.”

Pine said she is meeting with Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina next week to discuss the issue.

The spill occurred sometime after a break in the 20-inch force main at about 9:30 a.m. near the West Beach No. 2 Wastewater Pump Station, Owens said. The crews recovered about 2,800 gallons via Vactor trucks, he said. The rest of the spillage dissipated into the ground, and none seeped into a waterway or the ocean, Owens said.

Officials determined that the break was caused by corrosion to the external pipe. The force main was put into service in 1988, he said.

Goodfellow Brothers, a third-party contractor, did emergency repair work — replacing about 16 feet of pipe — from late afternoon Nov. 30 and into Dec. 1, Owens said. The city has not yet received an invoice for the work, he said.

The sewage spilled onto a remote area roughly 1,400 feet north of the golf course’s sixth hole, away from homes or hotels, he said. There is mostly dirt and very little brush there, he said. The city put up warning signs after the spill.

Geographic Information Services maps indicate the property is owned by Aina Nui Corp., he said. Aina Nui is a successor company to what was once the Estate of James Campbell, onetime majority owner of the Kapolei-Ko Olina area.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, in response to questions from reporters Thursday, defended the actions of city officials. The press was notified shortly after the spill was identified. The exact number of gallons involved could not be given immediately because “we don’t know until we actually go out there and contain it,” he said.