Cesspool users face higher pumping rates

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer

After years of leniency toward cesspool users, the city has embarked on a vigorous course of enforcement and fee increases that will reduce city losses on pumping services but sharply increase costs for hundreds of O'ahu homeowners.

The new fees, the first of which will first go into effect July 1, will be a burden, he said, "but at the same time for a number of years now they haven't seen the true cost."

He acknowledged that the city is losing money on its pumping operation, but declined to say how much.

Doyle said the changes are being made to bring charges more in line with the cost of the pumping service, to prevent public health hazards caused by failing or inadequate cesspools and because a city ordinance requires it.

The changes could cost thousands of dollars for homeowners who need to upgrade cesspool systems and could add hundreds or thousands of dollars annually to pumping fees that will jump from $33.65 a month now to $132.90 per pump next year.

Numerous complaints to the Department of Environmental Services, neighborhood board members and the City Council say the change in pumping service will financially burden homeowners and those on fixed incomes.

Of the 300,000 housing units on O'ahu, cesspools are used in about 3,000 to 4,000 homes. They are mostly in low-lying rural areas with small populations, where it isn't cost-effective to build a sewage treatment plant, or in areas such as 'Aiea Heights where it's difficult to place sewer lines because of the geography.

Some cesspool owners pump once a year, others much more frequently. James Fukuda, a Kahalu'u cesspool owner, must pump up to four times a month, especially when it rains. He's on a monthly contract and pays $33.65. But when the monthly contract option is eliminated beginning July 1, 2004, that same service — four pumps a month — will cost him $531 a month.

Fukuda said the new policy will result in more pollution as people solve the problem by diverting wastewater into streams and back yards.

"They're forced to do it (now) because they can't afford to pay the pumping fees," said Fukuda, who is trying to improve his system. "To me the city is going to make things worse. They should put in the sewer line."

A low-pressure pump system at each home, which would hook into the city's sewer system and end cesspool use, was proposed for Kahalu'u in 1998. Many residents opposed it — they questioned the pump's reliability, maintenance costs and inconvenience of having a pump on their property — so the city backed off. The city and Hawai'i Reserves Inc. are now installing a similar system in La'ie.

Fukuda said he supported the new sewer line in 1998 because he is in a low area and when it rains, all the low-lying cesspools back up and flow onto Kamehameha Highway and into the ocean.

City Councilman Gary Okino, 8th District (Pearl City-Waipi'o-Shafter), who represents 'Aiea Heights, said he thinks the city wants to get out of the pumping business because it's costing too much money.

"They ramped up the (cost) numbers so people would use the private sector," Okino said, adding that the rest of the taxpayers have been subsidizing the lower rates.

The changes apply to all cesspool owners, but the city has sent notices outlining the new fees and other changes to the 620 cesspool owners who use the city's pumping service.

According to the city letter, beginning May 1 cesspool owners face termination of their service if they do not maintain their systems in a safe, serviceable condition. The letter also says the city can require corrective action, including repairing or replacing a cesspool with a septic tank, which could cost about $10,000.

Doyle said only about 30 or 40 cesspools fall into the worst category. Any owner whose city service is terminated would have to hire a private company, where charges run about $125 a pump.

But Fukuda thinks the number of failing cesspools is higher and people are diverting water to avoid pumping fees.

"You just have to walk along the stream and you can see the pipes coming from the houses," he said.

MaryAnne Long, Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board chairwoman, said people complained about the price increase at a recent meeting. Big families said they are pumping once a week, and the city hasn't offered any solutions, Long said.

"The city has to do something to minimize the impact for those people," she said.

The financial burden could be higher if residents replace their present system with a septic tank and the city then decides to bring sewer lines to the community as it is doing in La'ie and plans to do in Kahalu'u in 2008.

Hooking up to the city sewer system is not an option — no matter how reliable your septic tank may be, said 67-year-old Diana Hoppe, of La'ie. La'ie hookups to the city sewer lines where estimated at $3,500 to $6,000, plus a monthly sewer charge.

Hoppe, a retiree living on a fixed income, said hooking up to the city system would be a financial burden and she and about 30 others opposed the project that forces people with working septic tanks to switch over.

"To pay when you don't want it is thievery," Hoppe said. "I just can't see paying for something I don't need."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.