Costco settles cesspool violation
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Costco Wholesale Corp. yesterday agreed to pay a $75,000 fine for failing to close and replace three large capacity cesspools at its warehouse on the Big Island, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The settlement between the Issaquah, Wash.-based retail giant and the EPA also requires Costco to install a wastewater treatment system at the Kailua, Kona, location.
"Today's settlement is part of our continuing effort to close large capacity cesspools and protect drinking water sources on the Big Island," said Alexis Strauss, director of the EPA's water division for the Pacific Southwest region. "We will continue to encourage all large capacity cesspool owners to meet the requirements by closing large capacity cesspools promptly."
Costco is required to:
Costco said Hawai'i County has failed to live up to its commitment to provide sewer service to the Kona location.
"When the County approved our system before we built our facility, it was designed to be a short-term, temporary solution until the extension of a public sewer line to serve our site, which the County promised to accomplish in a short time," Costco said in a prepared statement. "Now, more than a decade later, the sewer has not been completed as promised, and we are suffering the consequences of over-burdening a system that was not designed for this length of time."
Nelson Ho, deputy director of the county Department of Environmental Management, said he is unaware of any promise made to Costco to quickly extend a sewer line to the business, although the county is now planning an improvement district that would extend sewer service into the area in the years to come.
Ho said he met with a Costco representative two years ago and explained the county would be unable to extend sewer lines into the area in time to satisfy EPA. Ho said he suggested Costco discuss the matter with EPA, and never heard anything further.
Ho said the Costco representative did not indicate two years ago that the county had promised to rapidly extend a sewer line to the business.
Large capacity cesspools, defined as those that discharge untreated sewage from multidwellings or nonresidential locations that serve 20 or more people on any day, have been prohibited since April 2005 under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Cesspools discharge raw sewage into the ground, which can lead to disease-causing pathogens and other contaminants entering the groundwater, streams and the ocean, the EPA said.
Cesspools are used in Hawai'i more than any other state, according to the EPA.
