Foul Kahaluu waterway awaits help

Windward Oahu resident Flora Obayashi said she cringes whenever she sees children playing and wading through the mud in the Ka­haluu Lagoon behind the Hygienic Store — part of a waterway where fecal bacteria counts exceed state health standards.

State health officials say the presence of pathogens is more than three times the acceptable level from the mountain area to the lagoon and beach, where warning signs have been posted for at least three years.

Kahaluu Neighborhood Board member Clifford Loo said the warning signs at the beach fronting Kahaluu went up after people had problems. “I heard people were getting sores,” he said.

The kinds of disease-causing bacteria, viruses and protozoa in the water may vary depending on sicknesses carried by human feces, health officials said. Obayashi said City Councilman Ernie Martin’s office advised the board in 2015 that the dredging is scheduled for 2019.

But Obayashi, chairwoman of the Kahaluu Neighborhood Board, said no capital improvement funds have been set aside for it yet.

“The City and County of Honolulu is supposed to dredge the Kahaluu Lagoon and the channel regularly,” said Obayashi. “But the project has been deferred for decades due to lack of funds. So now we have a highly polluted stream and flood control lagoon.”

City Department of Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said the city administration is focusing on complying with a federally mandated 2010 wastewater system consent decree to upgrade Honolulu’s sewage treatment plants and sanitary collection system.

“Expanding the city sewer service to other communities, like Kahaluu, would be prioritized after the completion of the consent decree obligations,” she said.

She said the cost of improvements hasn’t been calculated but could amount to upward of $100 million.

A scientific study identifying major sources of pollution as well as ground water flow in Kahaluu is expected to be completed by about mid-2018. Residents say they believe the pollution stems from runoff from agricultural lands with chickens and cattle — and, most critically, hundreds of cesspools.

Observers say to some degree, the pollution stems from the state and county’s historic reluctance to limit the use of cesspools that now total an estimated 88,000 statewide.

Critics point out that while the city hasn’t set aside funds to connect Ka­haluu residents to sewer lines, the City Council passed an amendment last month to amend the Koolau Poko Sustainable Communities Plan, opening the door to allow 24 acres of agricultural land for residences mauka of Kahaluu, increasing the density of the population.

Hawaii had been issuing permits for about 800 new cesspools a year before March 2016, when it became the last state to ban new cesspools.

In conjunction with the ban, the state provided a tax credit of up to $10,000 for cesspools that were upgraded into sewer or septic tanks for owners living within 200 feet of the ocean, streams, marsh areas, or drinking water sources. Some 23 property owners have used the $10,000 tax credit since it was implemented.

The largest impact on reducing the number has come as a result of a 2016 provision requiring conversion of cesspools for property owners adding a bedroom. State wastewater branch chief Sina Pruder said it doesn’t track the conversions but estimates that hundreds of property owners planning to add a bedroom make the conversion annually.

A state study in 2014 had recommended adopting a point-of-sale provision requiring conversion of cesspool systems within a period of 180 days after the sale of a property. But the state Department of Health withdrew the provision in proposed changes to administrative rules following opposition from real estate officials.

In Rhode Island, where the point-of-sale provision was included in a law in 2015, there has been a significant number of property owners making the conversion. The Rhode Island law gives the property owner a year after the sale to make the change away from a cesspool system.

“The addition of the point-of-sale requirement has been the most significant driver of upgrades,” said Jon Zwarg, Rhode Island senior environmental scientist.

“In the year and a half since the point-of-sale requirement has been added, we have seen cesspools eliminated at a pace of around 800 a year.”

He said officials have found the point-of-sale upgrade is less burdensome on low-income homeowners than the alternative of having a set deadline for all cesspools.

Zwarg said the Rhode Island law is written so that the upgrade can be done by either the buyer or the seller and therefore becomes part of the negotiation for the sale.

“A seller with the means to do the upgrade can lower their price until they find a buyer willing to assume the responsibility,” he said.

He said buyers in many communities have access to low-interest loans for septic system upgrades and sometimes can roll the cesspool upgrade into their home loan.

The Kahaluu Neighborhood Board is scheduled to receive a status report on the study identifying the source of pollutants at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 in KEY Project Room 102-103, 47-200 Waihee Road in Kahaluu.