Posted on: Friday, April 1, 2005

EPA backs sewer plans, Hannemann says

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said yesterday that the city's "ambitious" sewer improvement plans received support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in meetings last month — along with a warning that much work still needs to be done.

Hannemann talked about the importance of improving the city's sewer system at a news conference at the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. He described some of the changes pitched in his five-point plan for revamping the city's aging sewer system.

Hannemann met with EPA officials in San Francisco last week, taking along his top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Carrie Okinaga, and his chief environmental engineer, Eric Takamura.

"There's still a lot of work that they expect the city to do," Hannemann said. "It's not going to be easy."

He emphasized that the improvements will be costly and intensive and will require the hefty increases in sewer service fees that he outlined last month.

Honolulu is under scrutiny from the federal government as a result of lawsuits filed in July in U.S. District Court by the Sierra Club, Hawaii's Thousand Friends and Our Children's Earth.

The environmental groups said there have been more than 1,200 sewage spills since 1999, which have contaminated Poka'i Bay, Ke'ehi Lagoon, Honolulu Harbor, Kane'ohe Bay, Kailua Bay and other coastal waters and inland streams. They said the legal action was needed because the city fell behind on work to upgrade sewage treatment plants to meet federal regulations.

Hannemann said the city will argue in court Monday that it is working to correct the problems and no further legal action is needed. He said 13 sewage spills have been reported since he took office this year.

Hannemann has dubbed the plan Operation FIX ("Fast, Immediate, eXpedited") and described it as a general strategy for improving the city's ability to meet current requirements as well as meet the terms of the 1995 consent decree with the EPA.

Honolulu agreed to make major improvements over 20 years. Hannemann has proposed doubling the city's sewer service fees over the next six years, beginning with a 25 percent increase in the next fiscal year and increasing by an additional 10 percent in each of the next five years. That would take it from a monthly average bill of $33 to $66.

He said the city has proposed spending $241 million — more than half of the construction budget — on wastewater work. Takamura, acting director of the city's Department of Environmental Services, said the city can speed up improvements by using what's called a design-build approach, in which the same contractor designs and builds the project.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at 535-2429 or rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.