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Four environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking more than $60 million in civil penalties to stop Maui County from continuing to discharge partially treated sewage into injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The groups allege the county is violating the federal Clean Water Act and that the discharges eventually make their way to the ocean, triggering outbreaks of invasive algae that kill marine life, including coral.
About 3 million to 5 million gallons of partially treated sewage is injected daily into the wells, situated about a third of a mile from the coastline, the lawsuit alleges.
The four plaintiff groups are the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, the Surfrider Foundation-Maui Chapter, the West Maui Preservation Association and Earthjustice.
"We notified Maui County last June that its Lahaina facility was damaging the reef and operating illegally, in hope that the county would voluntarily seek the required permit for wastewater discharges from the injection wells," said Earthjustice attorney Caroline Ishida. "Unfortunately, it apparently takes an enforcement action to get the county to do anything, which is why we’re now seeking relief from the court."
County spokesman Rod Antone said officials have not seen a copy of the lawsuit, and said the county does not comment on pending litigation in any case.
The county has in the past argued that the pollutants in the ocean could have come from elsewhere, such as storm runoff, and that there was no scientific proof showing sewage discharges into the well at the Lahaina Wastewater Treatment Plant ended up in the ocean.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, alleges the practice of injecting sewage into the wells has been going on since 1982, allowing nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended solids, bacteria, pharmaceuticals, musk fragrances and industrial chemicals to enter the ocean.
ISHIDA said in an interview Monday that the groups want the county to obtain a federal pollution discharge permit to control the type and amount of pollutants put into the injection wells and reduce the discharge of chemicals into the ocean.
She said the groups want to county to eventually treat and reuse the wastewater at the Lahaina plant.
Ishida said scientific studies support their lawsuit, including research by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Hawaii Department of Botany.
Hawaii Wildlife Fund President Hannah Bernard said Monday that preliminary results from a 2011 federal tracer study done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show the wastewater takes about three months to reach the ocean.
Bernard said federal officials injected a special dye in July and found traces of it about three months later in near-shore water.
EPA spokesman Dean Higuchi confirmed that in the 2011 study the dyes were detected in ocean seepage areas about three months after being discharged in the injection wells at the treatment plant. Higuchi said the results were preliminary and still being studied.
State and federal officials said in September that while bacteria levels in near-shore waters do not exceed public health standards, pharmaceutical chemicals and other chemicals associated with sewage have been found in the area close to Kahekili Park, about a third of a mile makai of the Lahaina wastewater facility.
Kahekili Park is in the northern Kaanapali area, where major algae blooms occurred in 1989, 1991 and 2001, prompting some merchants to complain about the loss of visitor business.
Since mid-2009, state officials have imposed a ban on taking certain kinds of fish and sea urchins that eat algae along a 1-mile section of northern Kaanapali.
The county also operates a wastewater treatment plant in Kihei, but that one fully treats its sewage and is a mile away from the ocean, according to federal officials.
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