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City officials say they believe about 137,400 gallons of untreated sewage spilled out of a broken force main pipe and onto vacant land near the Ko Olina Golf Course Monday and Tuesday.
Preliminary observations suggest corrosion caused the break, the Department of Environmental Services said, in a statement.
The break occurred in a spot of West Beach Force Main No. 2 about 30 feet away from the section where an October break resulted in more than 200,000 gallons being spilled.
A portion of this week’s spill reached a drainage basin but did not reach the ocean, the city Department of Environmental Services said in a release. Crews were able to recover 6,000 gallons with a Vactor truck, the city said. City crews cleaned, disinfected and deodorized the affected area.
Recorded data shows the break happened around 10:27 a.m. Monday, city officials said. They earlier had reported that the city was notified of the incident at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday and that the spill was contained about three hours later.
A third-party contractor completed repairs to the force main and restored flow to the pipe late Wednesday morning, city officials said.
Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said the city will likely need to spend tens of millions of dollars to permanently replace the force main as well as a second one that runs parallel to it.
When my mainland friends ask me about the fancy resorts at Ko Olina, I always tell them go for it if they want to pay a lot of money to stay in an industrial park with severe sewage issues, where all the palm trees were imported and have to be watered regularly because they don’t naturally grow in that dry part of Oahu.
agree..Ko Olina is just the pits. Stinking sewage is just the start of the problem…
But let’s just keep on building! Local politicians sold-out constituents long ago, as they rush to constantly dip their beaks. We surpassed our natural resource limitations a decade ago. Our sewer infrastructure is a disaster, but our corrupt politicians build a rail. BRILLIANT!