Friday, February 1, 2013

Musings: Flushing and Seepage

It's really great the feds and UH are getting all excited about studying coral disease on the North Shore. As The Garden Island reports, UH is even planning to send a graduate student over here — if they can scrap up the “nickels and dimes” to fund her work.

I've got an idea. Why not assess all the TVR owners who are running mini resorts with just cesspools along Hanalei Bay? As you can see from this graphic, there are quite a few, as represented by dark parcels with hatch marks. (Click on image to enlarge.) In fact, virtually every vacation rental on the beach has a cesspool, not a septic tank. And when you've got places that sleep 10 or more, well, we're talking about an awful lot of toilets flushing, an awful lot of shishi and doodoo seeping into the Bay.
So why, you might ask, would the county allow the equivalent of a 200-room hotel on Hanalei Bay without a septic system? Well, I can think of a few reasons: money, poor planning, money, disregard for the resources, money, short-sightedness, money, inability to see the big picture, money, outright stupidity, money, money, money. 

Speaking of which, it's so rich that the Land Use Research Foundation — the lobbying arm for large landowners, developers and a utility — would object to extending the law that requires property owners to make sure their vegetation doesn't block accesses or the beach.

LURF wanted a deferral of House Bill 17, and submitted testimony saying:

[L]andowners who live along the shoreline have important property rights, as well as the legal right to not be prosecuted by the State or to be charged fees for non-performance of maintenance obligations which should properly be performed by the State.

Yeah, well, the public has rights, too, including the right to prevent the elite from stealing our beaches by planting and maintaining landscaping on the sand, a devious and destructive process that I've documented extensively on this blog.

LURF wanted a full report on what has been done since the bill was passed in 2010. The answer is, unfortunately, not much. As I reported back in July, enforcement thus far has focused only beaches at Kahala and Diamond Head, though with very dramatic and positive results for those coastlines and the citizens who use them.

The state is apparently beginning to move against some of the more egregious offenders up in Wainiha, but it's a slow process for a cash-strapped state, which is why we need to bring some citizen efforts into the process. Like an Adopt-a-Beach program or something.

Mahalo to Rep. Derek Kawakami for co-sponsoring the bill, which was originally introduced by his predecessor, Mina Morita, who writes about the rationale here. Mahalo to Elaine Albertson for help with the graphic. And mahalo to The Garden Island's Léo Azambuja for keeping us informed on this and other key legislative issues. 

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Need signs warning beachgoers that going into Hanalei Bay is akin to swimming in a large toilet.

Anonymous said...

Has the EPA issued notices to all those with the non-conforming sewer systems like they did to Gay and Robinson for Pakalas?

Of course they were in violation for over 10 years and the county also gave them money to get into compliance...

Anonymous said...

What happened to the community? All gone. Now it's all vacation rentals. The whole town has been turned into one giant resort in the tsunami zone. Sickening.

Anonymous said...

Hanalei has become the Doo Doo Pond.

Surf there?
Surf Hanalei after it rains?

Got Ear infections?
Resistant crotch infections?
Take your antibiotics before you paddle?

Dr Shibai

Andy Parx said...

I think what they're doing is trying to have it both ways. For the EPA thy are single family homes with no commercial activity which would mean they can keep their old cesspools. But for purposes of TVRs they are commercial ventures ...although I'm not sure what the state says at this point, especially on non-conservation land. But somewhere someone is BSing someone else.

Anonymous said...

Now try enforcing a rule to eliminate all cess pits and wait for every old family here to scream they can't afford $15K for a leach field.

Get the popcorn ready for this fight.

What's worse, one TVR or Tahiti Nui with hundreds of patrons per day?

Anonymous said...

Be careful what you wish for. At least 50% of the upgraded cesspools end up disturbing native Hawaiian burial sites.
Make a choice clean bay or disturbing the sca
red sites ala Wailua.

Anonymous said...

You don't have to eliminate all cesspits. Just the ones at TVRs. Or eliminate the TVRs if they can't handle their sewage properly.

Anonymous said...

A TVR is a commercial property. There are less than 30 residential properties own and lived in by local families.

The rest should have been made to come into compliance with the EPA regulations prior to the issuance of a commercial use. Any change in use, modification of permit or other change should require compliance.

Period.

Anonymous said...

TVRs are hardly the problem. Again you are using your personal dislike of a practice to proselytize about something else entirely.

Anonymous said...

you can't just enforce rules in Hanalei......so trying to just screw the TVRs is not gonna work.

Anonymous said...

10:14 PM

You are aware that there are TVRs in areas other than Hanalei or are you not that informed?

Anonymous said...

Hanalei has more TVR's than anywhere, or are you not that informed?

Anonymous said...

Who are these polluters? Maybe the guests would like to know. Eco-tourism! No pooping into cesspools. C'mon vacation rental agents, have some ethics.

Anonymous said...

poor TVR owner doesn't want to fix their problem. grow up...

Anonymous said...

I believe both locals and tourist both make poop daily. Just saying....

Anonymous said...

Yes, but a lot more tourist poop is getting into Hanalei Bay. Just saying.....

Anonymous said...

Locals are not residing in commercially used residences.

A commercial use can be required to meet certain standards - such as compliance with regulations.

There is a good children's book you should read - it's called Everyone poops.

Anonymous said...

First off correction... The planned development's system on the cliffs at Hanalei won't be a septic system but will be tied into the Princeville sewer system.

Secondly cesspools in sandy soil which caves in when dug require a a concrete ring with leach cavities for percolation. So the cesspools work exactly like a septic system in sandy soil.

Too many homes in the Hanalei vicinity, whether it be a rental or otherwise. Hanalei town needs a County owned sewer system if we want to save the integrity of our beaches.

Anonymous said...

Where is the plan for expanding the County's sewer system to Hanalei?

No, Princeville has that covered already, right Larry Dill.