Wailua beach-goers warned of wastewater issues

WAILUA — The county Department of Public Works Wastewater Division is currently out of compliance with state Department of Health standards at its Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant.

While the county is out of compliance, it’s advised to stay away from close Wailua beaches. Potential exposure could cause infection, nausea, fever, chills, severe headaches and diarrhea from bacteria.

On July 12, the county reported exceeding its permitted 7,150 colony-forming units per 100 ml of enterococci bacteria levels, and hit 8,065 CFU per 100 ml. Acting County Engineer Troy Tanigawa said that, since then, the department has been under the daily limit.

“Beach-goers are advised that contact with the nearby ocean may cause illness,” Tanigawa said in a release last week.

“Wastewater officials are working with the Department of Health to follow all health and safety guidelines, and signs will be posted in the affected area.”

It was previously reported the repair would take about four months, but Tanigawa said the department is working on other solutions.

“The Wastewater Division has a two-pronged approach to repair the aged filtering system gearbox, which remains off-line at this time. Our mechanics are working on a potential solution that could result in a full repair within approximately one month,” Tanigawa said.

“A new gearbox assembly, which takes approximately four months to manufacture and ship, is being procured at this time to serve as the back-up (best case) or the required part for the permanent repair.”

This has happened before, Tanigawa said, but usually, the division is able to get it back up and running within a day or two.

“Over the past year, not including this current breakdown, the filter has been down once,” Tanigawa said.

The division samples the plant and the shoreline about five times a month, Tanigawa said, depending on how often water is sent into the ocean.

“Due to the recent exceedance, we will be sampling every day at the plant when we send water to the ocean,” Tanigawa said. “We will continue to sample every day until the filter has been fixed, all the valves taken since the exceedance have been under the daily permitted limit.”

The rest of the plan’s sewer-treatment process is in working order.

“Our treatment-plant operators monitor and make as-needed adjustments to treatment-system components on a daily basis in order to minimize exceedances with permit limits for treated effluent,” Tanigawa said.