Musings: Sewage Seepage

With news that coral reefs in Hawaii are experiencing a severe bleaching episode — and yes, it's happening across the state, though The Garden Island makes it sound like a Kauai-centric phenomenon — it becomes even more important to crack down on coastal cesspools.

Because as Kim Hum, Hawaii Director of Marine Programs for The Nature Conservancy, noted in an article by the Associated Press:

The corals are animals, right, they're not rocks. So what bleaching is, it's a sign of distress. [People need to] make our coral as healthy as possible ... so that they can respond and they don't bleach and they don't die because of these additional stressors.

Sewage is a major stressor of coral reefs. Now, as part of a new overall water quality plan, the state Department of Health has proposed ending the use of cesspools in new housing and requiring existing homes to convert to septic systems upon sale.

As West Hawaii Today reported, emphasis added:

Hawaii is the only state in the nation that still allows construction of new cesspools. There are currently 90,000 cesspools in the state. The majority, some 50,000, are located on the Big Island. In addition, almost 14,000 are on Kauai, more than 12,000 are on Maui, more than 11,000 are on Oahu and more than 1,400 are on Molokai. Each year an additional 800 new cesspools are approved for construction, according to the Health Department.

Though the Board of Realtors has opposed the change, claiming it will make housing more expensive and unduly burden local people, they've said nothing about the numerous high-end oceanfront homes that operate on cesspools.

Many of these houses, as I've previously reported in the Abuse Chronicles, are used as transient vacation rentals. And that means three things: they're generating a helluva lot of waste; they're regularly flipped, so this new rule would force them to upgrade, and they can certainly afford it.

For a vivid illustration of what's at stake, check out this graphic (click to enlarge), which shows just the Wainiha subdivision:

As I reported in the Abuse Chronicles, the defacto resort known as Hale Makai has five separate TVRs, each with its own cesspool. They were dug in 1967, including two that were just 50 and 75 feet, respectively, from the ocean. No doubt they're much closer now, given erosion. Between them, they can accommodate 19 people per night. 

Then there's Swaying Palms. Its cesspool was dug in 1958 for a 320-square-foot, two-room cottage. It now serves five bathrooms — each with a Jacuzzi tub — in a seven-bedroom TVR that is 10 times larger the original house.

Other houses, though not right on the beach, expanded without converting to a septic tank. Rainbows End, for example, was upgraded to three bathrooms — using the original cesspool that was designed to accommodate one bathroom.

How can they possibly be allowed to continue operating on cesspools?

Hanalei Bay is another toilet, as this map depicts (click to enlarge):

No doubt the situation is the same at Anini, Kalihiwai, Moloaa, Aliomanu, Anahola, Kapaa and everywhere else that TVRs cluster along the coast.

So not only did most of these TVR owners acquire their permits improperly, they're now being allowed to degrade the ocean and groundwater with impunity. 

Yet curiously, the North Shore crowd that lives in the thick of this shitty situation has become obsessed with GMOs/pesticides on the westside rather than screaming about the crap, literally, that they surf and swim in daily.

Uh, hello, Ohana O Kauai? Is anybody home? Mayoral candidate Dustin Barca and sidekick Fern Rosenstiel — is this even on your radar? I saw nothing on your website. Don't you folks think that e-coli is a threat to the keiki and fisheries? Not to mention all the other stuff that people flush down the toilet. Or are the donations from the richy-riches and North Shore Realtors blurring your vision?

What about North Shore Council candidate and "red shirt" Felicia Cowden, who weighed in on everything from GMOs to cat licensing? Nothing but crickets on this important issue. Instead, she emphasizes only the impact of agriculture on water quality.

Yes, this new rule may be a hardship for some. But those crocodile tears shed by the Board of Realtors aren't for the poor peons. They're for the well-heeled clients who might find it costly or impossible to locate a septic system on some of these expensive coastal lots. 

If you care about Hawaii's reefs and coastal resources, take a few moments and submit your testimony to wqpcomments@doh.hawaii.gov. You have until Friday, Oct. 17, to weigh in. 

To borrow a slogan from Ohana O Kauai and the rest of the "red shirts," since they obviously aren't using it anymore: "Protect What You Love."

(Cartoon from the Big Island Chronicle.)