Editorial: Add alternatives to dirty cesspools

Cesspools — holes in the ground where untreated human waste is deposited — are creating largely out-of-sight, out-of-mind problems in the islands. About half of the estimated 88,000 cesspools statewide pose a risk to our water resources, including drinking water, streams and coastal waters.

The Hawaii Department of Health’s Wastewater Branch estimates that statewide this substandard disposal system releases some 53 million gallons of sewage — complete with disease-causing pathogens and algae-feeding nutrients — into the ground daily.

In response, much-needed state legislation (Act 125) was enacted in 2017 requiring “upgrade, conversion or sewer connection” of all cesspools by 2050. But to meet that deadline, the nonprofit Wastewater Alternatives &Innovations (WAI) points out, the state will have to increase its current rate of cesspool fixes from some 200 a year to 3,000 a year.

The replacement effort has been slow-going, in part, due to a hefty price tag. After Act 125 took effect, the Health Department estimated the cost at $1.75 billion, or about $20,000 for each fix. Among the options for compliance, expanding sewer lines to rural areas is likely the most expensive and disruptive.

At single-family properties, installation of a septic system or an aerobic treatment unit — cleaning wastewater through aeration and microbes — requires a leach field, which removes pathogens. WAI notes that obstacles can include the lack of enough land for a leach field, and a cost of upwards of $25,000, if a home is near a water body.

Given the heavy lift needed to better protect Hawaii’s public health and environment, it’s encouraging that innovative wastewater technology is generating promising replacement options, such as waterless toilets.

One electric/gas model, the Cinderella Incineration Toilet ($4,500), is billed as a system that burns all toilet waste at a high temperature to produce odorless, pathogen-free ash. This option could especially benefit rural communities that are unlikely to soon be connected to a county sewer system.

On Oahu, incinerator toilet pilot projects are in the works at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island and a farm at Kuilima on the North Shore. Also, WAI is working with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to install them in Kokee and Kalalau Valley on Kauai.

Legislators must now push for ways to accelerate the phase-out — an effort initiated almost three decades ago, when the state put in place a ban on new cesspools on Kauai and Oahu, most of Maui, Lanai, and portions of Molokai and Hawaii island.

Another law, Act 120 (2015), which created an income tax credit program tied to the cost of replacement, expired in December. Lawmakers must consider launching additional incentive programs, particularly to assist low-income property owners.

Further, Hawaii, which has long ranked among the states with the highest counts of cesspools, could see progress by heeding WAI’s call for regulations that require the outdated system to be replaced before a home is sold.

In Rhode Island, which also has a high number of cesspools, a point-of-sale provision is prodding progress. New cesspools were banned there more than 50 years ago. The phase-out, however, was sluggish until six years ago, when the state adopted a policy requiring the scrapping of a cesspool after sale of a property. Either the buyer or the seller pays for the upgrade, which can become part of the overall sale negotiation.

Hawaii values stewardship of natural resources. So much so that the state Constitution mandates that we have a “right to a clean and healthful environment.” This pollution problem is overdue for stepped-up mitigation vision, with the state and counties backing it up.