Sewage spills at shopping center

‘ELE‘ELE — An overflowing manhole Monday evening at ‘Ele‘ele Shopping Center sent more than 1,000 gallons of sewage water onto the mall’s parking lot, according to county officials.

“It is suspected that a plugged sewer main is the cause of the spill,” the county stated in a press release.

“I think it could very well have been because of grease,” said Ed Tschupp, chief of the Wastewater Management Division.

The county said they don’t believe the spill reached state waters, including the ocean.

“To the best of our knowledge it was fairly small and contained,” Tschupp said. “There was a block in the line; it overflowed A5in the manhole,” he said. “Gravity took it to the next manhole, our guy was able to open the next manhole lid and it went right back in the sewer.”

The spill happened near a bigger one last October, which affected the McDonald’s restaurant in the shopping center and sent approximately 10,000 gallons of sewage onto the road. Just like this week’s spill, the county blamed blockage in a sewer line.

The county said last year during that spill that the ocean was not affected by the wastewater, although an investigation indicated the water was “flowing out of the shopping center storm drain and over the cliff behind the shopping center.”

This week’s spill, however, was far less significant than last year’s because there wasn’t any flooding of a building, Tschupp said.

Malie Gushiken, who works at the Sweet & Sassy clothing store in the shopping center, said Tuesday that the water was shooting up to two feet in the air, coming out of a manhole near the parking lot’s eastern entrance.

“It was pretty bad; it was coming down the road toward the highway,” she said.

Gushiken said she noticed the spill around 6:30 p.m. and immediately called the shopping center manager, Keith Ching.

The manager’s office is located in Lihu‘e. Ching said there was “no sense” in going to the site because it would take too long, but sent a plumber there who determined the problem was with a main line belonging to the county.

“I think there might’ve been some grease (in the main line),” said Ching, adding that the shopping center does maintenance-cleaning in its sewer lines quarterly to make sure there’s no blockages, especially because some of the mall’s tenants are restaurants and grease could get into the system.

Police dispatch received a call at approximately 7:30 p.m. and immediately alerted the Public Works Department, the county press release states. Wastewater personnel were on site 15 minutes later and, after confirming the spill, initiated a response.

By 9:30 p.m. the spill was contained and crews were cleaning and disinfecting the area, according to the press release.

“I didn’t leave the shopping center until midnight; they were working for hours, sucking it up, and washing the road,” said Gushiken, who stayed at work until late because Sweet & Sassy is opening a clothing consignment store in front of the spillage area.

She said neither store was affected and she didn’t think Big Save supermarket was affected either because workers had blocked off the road right after the parking lot.

“When I came this morning they were still cleaning, checking all the drains to see if other drains were clogged,” Gushiken said. “They were looking in the holes all over the place.”

Ching said the wastewater didn’t make it to the ocean; it stopped in a landscaped area past the parking lot. “A thousand gallons is not that much,” he said.

Gushiken wasn’t sure how far the water went, but she said it was running for a long time and filled up the whole back of the parking lot.

Tschupp said the credit for avoiding a larger problem goes to the county employees who contained it in a timely manner.

“They really jumped on it and got it solved in a fairly short amount of time, and it ended up being not a very bad spill,” he said.

The spillage happened right around the time Honolulu County announced it agreed to upgrade its aging sewers and improve its two main wastewater facilities.

Tschupp said the Wastewater Division’s upgrading plans for the area are almost ready.

The sewer lines by the ‘Ele‘ele Shopping Center will be rerouted, and the ones that caused the spill will be abandoned because of poor conservation status, according to Tschupp.

“We are working on solving that problem. It’s an area where the line is old and not in good shape,” he said.

Tschupp said once construction starts, it shouldn’t take long to build. “It’s a fairly straight-forward project.”

The funding arrangements, which are “still up in the air,” are the main reason the project hasn’t started yet, he said.

“I think when we resolve the funding question we’ll be able to go up to bid fairly soon, which means probably in the next few months.” he said. “We’re looking at probably paying that with operational budget rather than CIP.”

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