Hawaii County plans to condemn land in Pahala for a sewage treatment plant.

Kamehameha Schools owns the 42.5-acre parcel between Highway 11 and Maile Street, West Hawaii Today reports.

The land, valued at $285,000, is leased for a macadamia nut orchard, county property tax records show.

The county is under an Environmental Protection Agency order to close large-­capacity cesspools in Pahala and Naalehu. A separate wastewater treatment plant would be built for each community.

Bill Kucharski, county environmental management director, said the Pahala plant is expected to be finished by 2020. The Naalehu facility would come online in 2022. A consent order between the county and EPA earlier this year sets out the timeline for building the new facilities.

Kamehameha Schools issued this statement: “We are assessing the ramifications and impact that a potential eminent domain action will have on these lands given the responsibilities we have to our farmer lessee and our trust obligations to benefit the education of Native Hawaiian children.”

UPDATE: After this story was posted, the Hawaii County Council Finance Committee on Monday deferred action on a resolution that would proceed with condemnation proceedings.

State says well water still safe after trace herbicides found

Two wells on Hawaii island have been found to contain trace elements of an herbicide, but the water is still considered safe to drink, the state Health Department said Monday.

Minute amounts of the chemical dalapon, an herbicide used to control grasses, were found in the county’s Keei Well A and Keei Well B in South Kona.

Dalapon was confirmed in November at trace levels, just above laboratory detection limits, in the range of 1 to 2.5 parts per billion. This is well below the federal and state thresholds of 200 ppb, the department said in a statement.

“These findings do not represent a health threat,” said Keith Kawaoka, deputy director for environmental health.