Posted on: Thursday, April 21, 2005

EDITORIAL
Cesspool owners need clearer EPA direction

The Environmental Protection Agency needs more clarity and better communication in its crackdown against large-capacity cesspools. EPA mandates thus far have created delays and confusion among landowners and have not moved Hawai'i any closer to protecting its groundwater.

Thousands of property owners were told they faced fines of up to $32,500 per day because they missed a deadline to shut down their cesspools, which discharge raw sewage into the ground and could contaminate groundwater. Sadly, cesspools are more widely used in Hawai'i than in any other state.

Complaints from some smaller landlords and an examination of some EPA public directives illustrate that the agency could have done a better job of spelling out who was exempt and who was not.

For example, under the 1999 cesspool rules that set the April 5 deadline, a single-family home served by its own cesspool is exempt, but apartments are not. But the more recent fact sheets explaining these rules use new wording, requiring cesspools for "multiple dwellings" to be replaced with alternative systems. This would seem to apply to 'ohana units so popular in Hawai'i, but earlier versions of the fact sheets did not make this clear.

Meanwhile, the EPA has struck consent agreements with government agencies that were working on the upgrades but were bogged down in securing money for the work, or otherwise got mired in red tape. They have been given several more years to finish up without the threat of fines.

The delays, of course, do nothing to protect Island aquifers. A clean and safe water supply should be of the highest concern — and the EPA and landowners must work as quickly as possible to eliminate dependence on cesspools, regardless of time extensions. The risk of compromising our water supply is one Hawai'i cannot afford to take.