The county Department of Public Works Division of Wastewater has received approval from the Kaua’i County Planning Commission to construct an injection well to accommodate treated sewage.
The well is to be built at the Lihu’e wastewater treatment plant along the Kaua’i Lagoons Golf Club near Lihu’e Airport, and will allow expansion of county sewer lines around the greater Lihu’e area.
Before the commission’s unanimous vote, some citizens voiced concern about the effluent possibly polluting Kalapaki Bay and surrounding ocean water. But the county’s consulting hydrologist doesn’t anticipate adverse effects on marine life due to the strong mixing of ocean water off Kalapaki.
Cheryl Lovell-Obatake, another critic of the sewage project, said people eat ‘opihi, seaweed and other sea life from the ocean. The beach at Kalapaki has been closed by the state Department of Health before because of pollution from streams running into the bay, she added.
Further pollution from seepage from the well would be unacceptable, she said.
The Department of Health, which regulates the reuse of effluent (treated sewage water) and the pollution of state waters, has approved the Kaua’i Lagoons Resort Co.’s irrigation management plan.
The company uses the treated effluent to irrigate the golf course.
Pleas and others suggested the sewage be treated at the plant to produce drinkable water which could be used for irrigation and other uses at the nearby Lihu’e Airport, industrial park, Vidinha Stadium, postal facility, Kaua’i Veterans Center and the county’s under-construction police, civil defense and bus system buildings.
But county officials said it costs too much to treat sewage to that level. The 600-foot-deep well would accommodate 700,000 gallons of effluent a day, officials said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
