The city yesterday responded to a federal judge's ruling that it violated the Clean Water Act 297 times by saying that the majority of the spills never reached waterways.

"To force the city to defend against these types of claims, claims that rest on typographical errors and atypical permit provisions, does a disservice to Honolulu's residents and visitors," said Eric S. Takamura, director of the city's Environmental Services Department, in a written statement.

District Judge David A. Ezra on Monday ruled the city discharged millions of gallons of sewage into streets, streams, homes and waterways over nine years. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed against the city in 2004 by the Sierra Club, Hawaii's Thousand Friends and Our Children's Earth Foundation.

Ezra assessed violations against the city based on 112 incidents that the city had reported and did not dispute, according to a statement from the city Department of Environmental Services.

The court assessed an additional 148 violations based on spills that were confined to the ground only, according to the statement. Many of these spills were as small as a half-gallon, more than 25 percent were less than 10 gallons and none of them reached waters, according to Takamura.

The plaintiffs claimed that a permit provision for one of the city's wastewater treatment plants allowed them to pursue violations for spills that had no impact on island waters, and the court agreed, on the grounds that the city did not challenge the permit provision sooner, the city's statement said.

From fiscal year 2006 to 2008, Mayor Mufi Hannemann committed about $946 million for sewer improvements, more than the previous 10 fiscal years combined, according to the city.

Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Sierra Club's Hawaii chapter, yesterday said the city's efforts should be spent trying to fix the sewer system, not defending against lawsuits.

"What frustrates us is the city's view that raw sewage flowing into streets or backing up into people's homes isn't a problem unless it hits a waterway," Mikulina said. "They're spending $400 an hour on a Mainland attorney who continues to lose. The money should be spent on the sewage system, not high-priced attorneys. Certainly some of the spills are of greater severity than others but a pathogen-laden sewage spill is still a problem even if it doesn't flow into the ocean."

Ezra's order covers spills at the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant, as well as the city's islandwide collection system.

The Clean Water Act authorizes fines of up to $32,500 per violation, which could total millions of dollars in fines that would go to the U.S. Treasury.

Ezra's order comes 10 months after he ruled the city violated a federal wastewater discharge permit 3,181 times by failing to meet construction schedules for two key projects and exceeding bacteria limits.

Four years of delays in building a disinfection unit at the Sand Island plant resulted in 1,578 of the violations, one for every day the project was late, Ezra found in October.

Also, discharged effluent exceeded limits for enterococcus bacteria 1,603 times.