Concerns About Water Quality Prompt A Lawsuit Over A Kona Sewage Plant
Kealakehe sewage plant discharges more than 1 million gallons of wastewater into a lava pit near the ocean.
Settlement talks are scheduled in an environmental lawsuit involving a county-operated Big Island sewage plant in Kona.
The case, brought by Earthjustice on behalf of Hui Malama Honokohau, alleges that Hawaii County is violating the by operating the Kealakehe plant without proper federal authorization, namely a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit.
Lawyers for the county say the Kealakehe plant, in operation since 1993, and its wastewater discharges meet state and federal standards.
The seaside plant is about 3,700 feet from Honokohau Harbor and about 5 miles south of Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport. The 31-year-old plant handles more than 1 million gallons of human waste from the greater Kailua-Kona area every day and is designed to process up to five times that amount.
The waste is screened, with solids removed and trucked away to a landfill. The remaining liquid waste is pumped into five large, aerated settling ponds where sludge settles to the bottom.
An access road overlooking the settling ponds is a . On a recent afternoon, a variety of ducks, egrets, shorebirds and more were sunning themselves, pecking at insects and spying tiny fish navigating the ponds at the industrial facility.
Gentle breezes created small waves in the wastewater ponds.
Below the surface, wastewater in the final settling pond was piped over to a chlorination machine, then pumped under Queen Kaahumanu Highway and to what is called a 鈥渄isposal percolation basin.鈥 It’s basically a crack in the lava.
From a pipe, chlorinated wastewater can be seen flowing into the pit. From there then it drains into ground water and ultimately the ocean.
The process bothers people like Mike Nakachi, a boater and Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who regularly uses the harbor and the ocean.
Nakachi says the waste is harming marine life and exposing paddlers and other ocean users to harmful conditions like skin rashes and staph infections.
鈥淎fter you go in the water, you鈥檙e using the Dawn soap. You鈥檙e washing yourself off, just to be safe. And that鈥檚 just the tip of the iceberg,鈥 Nakashi said in an interview at the harbor.
The public interest law firm Earthjustice filed suit against Hawaii County on Sept. 25 on behalf of Hui Malama Honokohau, which is made up of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, paddlers, people who fish and other ocean users.
The complaint alleges that the Kealakehe wastewater leaches into the nearby ocean, allowing contaminants, nutrients, metals and endocrine-disrupting compounds to enter the nearshore environment.
Not only does this impair the water, but it exposes ocean users to potential infections and waterborne illnesses, such as E. coli.
鈥淗ui members have contracted staph infections 鈥 in some instances methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections 鈥 after entering the harbor and adjacent waters,鈥 according to the complaint.
The county’s top attorney Elizabeth Strance said by phone that the Corporation Counsel鈥檚 Office would not comment on active litigation.
The county has hired an outside law firm based in Honolulu to represent it in the matter.
In an Oct. 30 answer to the complaint, Deputy Corporation Counsel Lerisa Heroldt said the county denies that it is legally required to have an NPDES permit.
The effluent flow from the Kealakehe plant has been treated, oxidized and disinfected to meet state and federal standards for secondary wastewater treatment.
She also denied allegations that contaminants are being discharged into the ocean and harming water quality and the health of nearshore ecosystems. Earthjustice is making assumptions based on untrue or unestablished facts that are speculative and argumentative, Heroldt wrote.
The lawsuit is currently in the discovery phase with a settlement conference scheduled for Feb. 21.
Earthjustice attorney David Henkin expressed confidence that his legal arguments will prevail.
Henkin for its long-term use of injection wells in Lahaina that pumped treated waste underground that eventually led to the ocean, damaging marine life including coral reefs, particularly around Kahekili Beach Park.
Henkin took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won in a 6-3 ruling in 2020.
Maui County and former President Donald Trump’s administration had argued that the Clean Water Act should only cover waste that is discharged from a point source into waters of the United States, not wastewater that percolates through groundwater into the ocean.
Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer said that reasoning was flawed and would be a massive loophole in the Clean Water Act.
Henkin said he had hoped that precedent would have precluded the needed to sue Hawaii County over what he sees as essentially the same issue. But attempts to persuade the county to address the issues at the Kealakehe plant failed.
鈥淲e hope that the county has a change of heart and focuses on fixing the problem instead of litigation,鈥 Henkin said.
Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Hawaii island is supported in part by a grant from the Dorrance Family Foundation
Read Earthjustice’s complaint:
Read Hawaii County’s answer to the complaint:
