KAUMAKANI — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Gay & Robinson to pay a fine of $110,000 for its failure to close 40 large-capacity cesspools, according to a press release Wednesday. The federal deadline to close all existing large-capacity
KAUMAKANI — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Gay & Robinson to pay a fine of $110,000 for its failure to close 40 large-capacity cesspools, according to a press release Wednesday.
The federal deadline to close all existing large-capacity cesspools — “waste disposal systems” that serve more than 20 people daily — was April 2005, according to the EPA.
“We’ve given people a lot of time to get into compliance,” said Dean Higuchi, spokesperson for the U.S. EPA in Hawai‘i. G&R has “known about this for a long time.”
By May, G&R is required to close its 22-foot wide Kaumakani cesspool which has received untreated sewage for many years from two administration buildings and 28 homes on Kaumakani Avenue, as well as Camp 6 cesspools, the release says. In addition, the company’s large-capacity cesspools at Pakala Village are to be closed by September 2011.
A “formal enforcement action” was commenced by the EPA in September 2009 against G&R. The Westside company has state-approved replacement plans for the cesspools required to close by the May 2010 deadline, the release says. The EPA is awaiting design plans/concepts to better understand how the large cesspools at Pakala Village will be replaced.
Attempts to reach Gay & Robinson President Alan Kennett by press time were unsuccessful.
“We’re definitely concerned about residences and company retirees … we’re not in any position of trying to make it harder for people in the community,” Higuchi said. “We would hope that (G&R) would replace the system … we want them to get into compliance.”
The County of Kaua‘i followed the lead of the County of Hawai‘i in assisting sugar plantations with the closure of their cesspool systems, said Beth Tokioka, the mayor’s executive assistant, in a statement.
“The County received EPA funding intended for the Gay & Robinson cesspool closure at Kaumakani and Pakala, and in turn sub-granted the funding to G&R,” she said. “The County has received no compensation for this arrangement and is not involved in the actual work being done. The total grant amount was $382,300.”
Known as a bacteria-hotspot, Pakala has long been a health concern of Surfrider Foundation. The nonprofit’s Blue Water Task Force has routinely sampled the popular surf spot’s water quality since October 2007 and found it to contain chronically high levels of bacteria, Surfrider’s Dr. Carl Berg said Wednesday.
“Anytime you have a large capacity cesspool, it takes raw sewage and puts it into the ground,” Higuchi said. If the systems are close enough, its contents can be leeched into the ocean.
Lawrence Lau of the Department of Health’s Clean Water Branch said earlier this year that high counts of enterococcus (a bacteria commonly found in the feces of humans and animals) do not necessarily mean human sewage.
“We need to do more testing,” he said at the time.
An e-mail from Judy Kern at the Hawai‘i DOH Communications Office in February stated that the DOH was planning to expand its water quality testing to four sites fronting Pakala Camp and one site west of the village.
Requests for comment from the DOH regarding the EPA announcement were unsuccessful by press time.
“Cesspools discharge raw sewage into the ground, allowing disease-causing pathogens and other contaminants to pollute groundwater, streams and the ocean,” said Alexis Strauss, Water Division director of EPA’s Pacific Southwest region, in the release. “As five years have passed since the large-capacity cesspool ban took effect, we’re working to ensure large-capacity cesspools are closed to protect Hawai‘i’s water resources.”
Hawai‘i utilizes more cesspools than any other state in the nation, according to EPA Pacific Southwest region’s Ground Water Office manager David Albright in the press release. “While many cesspools are now closed, there are numerous large-capacity cesspools in use by restaurants, hotels, office complexes, and multiple dwellings, which still require attention.”
Visit www.epa.gov/region09/hicesspools for more information on EPA’s large-capacity cesspool regulations.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
