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A state mandate that all of the tens of thousands of cesspools in the islands must be converted to septic tanks — or connected to sewer systems — by 2050 is causing financial concerns for residents and logistical challenges for state and local lawmakers.

Those concerns were on display this week as residents decried the mandate — and the costs they face to get rid of their cesspools — during a Kauai town hall meeting attended by about 60 residents, along with three Kauai state representatives and other officials, in Puhi.

“This is about public health, it is about the environment, it is about our drinking water, and it is particularly about our nearshore waters,” said Stuart Coleman, executive director of the nonprofit organization Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations.

WAI has worked with state legislators to create laws to help solve the cesspool problem in Hawaii. Nearly 88,000 cesspools dump some 53 million gallons of raw sewage into the ground statewide each day, which can eventually contaminate natural resources such as drinking water.

Kauai is the first county to launch a program that will reimburse 100 homeowners for $20,000 upon completion and certification of a septic tank to replace a cesspool, according to state Rep. Luke Evslin. The county is also partnering with the Kauai Federal Credit Union to provide full financing for the conversion that could cost more than twice the funds offered by the program.

Money for Kauai’s cesspool conversion program comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the state, Evslin said.

At best, it would be a small step. There are an estimated 13,700 cesspools on Kaui, and the $20,000 reimbursements for the 100 residents lucky enough to get it would only cover a portion of the septic tank conversion cost now estimated at $50,000 or more.

The town hall was held Monday night — 12 days after the month-long application window opened Aug. 28 — and there were already 233 applications filed with the county Housing Agency. The last day to apply is Sept. 27.

“I’m not going to pretend that this is the perfect program,” said Adam Roversi, director of the Housing Agency. “I wish I had $50,000 to give to everybody.”

“Nobody thinks that this is a good solution here,” Evslin said. “We are all trying to figure out our best path forward and bring those costs down.”

“The hope is that the state would have more programs in tandem, and the county, meanwhile, will be expanding sewer,” he said.

‘One Of The Biggest Problems We Face In Hawaii’

In the last few years, a few state laws have been aimed at mitigating the problem that the Department of Health estimated in 2017 would cost $1.75 billion to solve. That estimate was based on each conversion costing $20,000, but the current cost of a septic tank today can easily reach beyond $50,000.

In 2016, the state banned the creation of new cesspools. Then, Act 120, which sunsetted in 2020, provided $10,000 in tax relief to homeowners converting homes within 200 feet of bodies of water.

It is Act 125, enacted in 2017, that is causing residents to lose sleep and government officials to search for solutions to help the transition. It mandated all cesspools in the state be converted to septic tanks by 2050, with a few exemptions subject to approval by the DOH, including small lots, steep topography, poor soils and accessibility issues.

Last year, a DOH program disbursed $20,000 for 250 homeowners across the state.

On Oahu, county officials are considering connecting some homes to new or existing sewer lines, a solution they say would cost homeowners $8,500 to $10,000 — far cheaper than conversions to septic tanks.

On the Big Island, Evslin said sewer expansion had been considered in some areas at the whopping cost of $200,000 per household.

Out of the 87,900 cesspools in Hawaii, 49,300 are on the Big Island, dumping 27.3 million gallons of untreated sewage into the ground every day. Kauai has the second-largest number, with 13,700 cesspools dumping 9.5 million gallons of raw sewage daily. Maui has 12,200 cesspools dumping 7.9 million gallons, Oahu has 11,300 dumping 7.5 million gallons, and Molokai has 1,400 dumping 800,000 gallons, according to DOH.

Those figures, gathered from 2009 to 2014 by the DOH, the University of Hawaii and the Environmental Protection Agency, are still being used by stakeholders. Since new cesspools were banned only in 2016, the actual numbers could be higher.

“I personally think cesspools are one of the biggest problems that we face in Hawaii right now,” Evslin said. “They’re having a huge impact on our oceans, reefs, our freshwater resources, even our drinking water resources.”

Another big impact is that state law prohibits issuing building permits before conversion to a septic system. So, cesspools have become a “major contributor” to the state’s housing crisis, Evslin said, because unless the cesspool has been converted, no one can build additional units on their property.

Rep. Nadine Nakamura said the Legislature has considered many cesspool-related bills over the past few years.

“But I think just within the Legislature there are different opinions about how to implement this program, and who should be taking the lead; the individual landowner, the county, the state,” she said. “There’s just a lot of finger-pointing right now, and that is why, really, we haven’t moved the needle.”

It’s not just the county’s or the state’s responsibility, Nakamura said, adding they must work together to identify the low-hanging fruit, where cesspool conversion and wastewater treatment plants make the most sense.

“It’s just going to be step-by-step in that way, and at the same time, looking at a much larger grant program,” Nakamura said. About 85% of homeowners who have cesspools cannot afford a septic tank conversion, she said.

‘I Will Never Vote For Any Of You’

Residents at the town hall counted themselves among that 85%, and some of them took their frustrations out on their elected officials and the county reimbursement program.

“I will never vote for any of you, never, because you don’t represent us,” one resident said. Another said he lives in a flood zone and a cesspool would cost him $60,000 to $100,000. “You guys’ $20,000 is nothing,” he said.

For those who qualify, the reimbursement won’t come until after the cesspool conversion, Roversi said, adding he recently received bids ranging from $32,000 to $54,000 to convert the cesspool on his property.

County Council Chair Mel Rapozo said the council had the “easy job” of approving the program, but he wished the council had more authority on this issue. Rapozo said the conversion for his own property will cost $48,000, and even with the program helping, he doesn’t have the money for the conversion.

Some residents also questioned the potential to expand the county’s sewer system to additional homes, especially in the Wailua Houselots area.

Rapozo agreed a better solution would be for the administration to move on a plan to install sewer plans on Kauai, but there are no current plans. The council, he said, has been asking the administration for a sewerization plan for quite a while, hoping to get “some sense of an idea of which direction we want to go” during the budget review sessions.

Wailua Houselots, because of the proximity to a county sewer system, was one of the areas some residents proposed for a sewer expansion. Nakamura said in the past, the Houselots community didn’t want to connect with the sewer system.

“But what we were thinking is, if the state can work with the county, that would be a prime example of a partnership that could benefit the residents of that community,” she said.

If the county decides to expand sewer lines, homeowners who have already converted to septic systems would still likely be subject to sewer fees.

“We really have got to revisit these laws, because it doesn’t make sense to have any one of you invest 40 grand in a septic system, only to find out that your area will be sewerized in five years,” Rapozo said.

Evslin said the county managing director told him that in the event the county expands sewer lines, homeowners who have converted to a septic tank would be granted a 25-year exemption on sewer fees, following a precedent set in Honolulu.

No one was able to say at the meeting what the fees would be for homeowners who don’t convert their systems by 2050, because there is nothing written in the law that specifies a penalty. Evslin said this will be up to future lawmakers to decide.

During this year’s legislative session, there was an attempt to allow counties to charge a fee equivalent to sewer fees to homeowners who have a cesspool, starting as early as next fiscal year. progressed through various committees with language including a monthly fee of $66 to $100. Ultimately the fees were eliminated before the bill was approved.

HB 2743 became Act 217, requiring UH to help identify the highest-priority areas statewide where sewer systems or other centralized treatment systems could feasibly be expanded or built to reduce or eliminate cesspools by 2050.

Information about Kauai County’s cesspool program, plus links to the application, licensed engineers and contractors, .