Improve Proactive Planning Cesspool Conversions through Sewer Hookup

This new law will help Hawaiʻi address its water pollution issues associated with cesspools by prioritizing areas for wastewater upgrades. There are approximately eighty-three thousand cesspools that discharge an estimated fifty million gallons of untreated sewage into the State's groundwater and surface waters every day.  This antiquated technology threatens drinking water, increases the risk of human illness, and causes significant harm to streams and coastal resources, including coral reefs.

While the counties are responsible for constructing and maintaining wastewater systems, the State of Hawaiʻi does not require the counties to develop wastewater management plans, nor are the counties required to identify neighborhoods that could be connected to existing and planned wastewater treatment facilities.  

This lack of information makes it difficult for individuals currently served by cesspools to decide whether to invest in cesspool conversions or to wait to connect with existing or proposed county wastewater systems.

Those who live in neighborhoods that are connected to wastewater systems managed by a county currently must pay monthly sewer fees, which range from $66.50 per month to more than $100 per month.  Residents living on properties having cesspools do not pay a similar monthly fee to the county, even though wastewater from these cesspools threatens clean drinking water, stream ecology, and coastal resources.

To convert the 83,000 cesspools across Hawaiʻi, the counties will need new sources of revenue to help pay for new and expanded wastewater facilities, as well as assist low- and moderate‑income landowners to convert cesspools to an approved individual wastewater system or to connect to a decentralized or municipal wastewater system.

Surfrider Foundation strongly supported House Bill 2743 (HB2743) t signed into law on July 8, 2024. Originally the bill would have required counties to develop a wastewater management plan and authorized the counties to assess a cesspool pollution fee. Unfortunately HB2743 went through a number of amendments during the 2024 legislative session that removed the cesspool pollution fee. The good news is that HB2743 does direct the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant program to develop a tool that will identify priority areas where county sewer systems or other centralized treatment systems may be feasibly to help eliminate cesspools before January 1, 2050.  

We believe that this is a critical step towards improving the ability of individual landowners, counties, and the state to proactively plan for the phaseout of cesspools by 2050.