The Maui County Environmental Management stonewalled the DIRE coalition and Save Kahului Harbor at their intervention in the SMA Permit Exemption hearing.   By some real fast talking and misrepresentation, they managed to convince the Maui Planning Commission that drilling two new “replacement” injection wells a couple hundred feet away from the existing wells and putting in more piping was “refurbishment” and worthy of an exemption from SMA permit application.

Meanwhile Councilmembers Wayne Nishiki and Sol Kaho’ohalahala, fed up with the Tavares administration’s foot-dragging on bringing Maui County into compliance with the wishes of the residents to phase out injection wells (instead of building new ones) introduced language to force the Department of Environmental Management (known to many as the Department of Environmental Law Evasion)  to at least draw up plans to disinfect the water and re-use it, prior to getting the money for their new injection wells.

In an overblown stalling technique, Dave Taylor, head of wastewater (aka “A Little Sewer Water Never Hurt Anyone“) claimed the design cost would be $1 million.  To which we respond, maybe in your department, but not in the real world.

Since the 1998 EIS for the Kahului injection wells stated that it was both the intent and effect that the effluent in the wells go into the ocean, the County is violating the Clean Water Act.  Fines for this are $32,000 per day per well or in excess of  a quarter million dollars per day.

Councilmember Joe Pontanilla estimated that the construction to treat the sewage to R1 (e.g. disinfect it) and pipe it for re-use would be about $30,000,000.   Sounds like a big number given the current budget crisis.  But it is less than 4 months of fines that could be imposed at any time by the EPA.

When (not if) the EPA cracks down on the Kahului injection wells, we’ll have to just bite the bullet and pay those fines for however many months it takes to plan and construct the R1 treatment.

We can’t afford not to start planning for this immediately.

What You Can Do

Download our flyer.  Print it out and hand it out everywhere.

Call or email  your CouncilMembers and ask them to light a fire under the Wastewater Division to clean up our water before pushing it into the ocean.

The number of people hospitalized in Hawaii because of MRSA infections is twice the national average and approximately 200 people in Hawaii die from MRSA every year with the highest incidence on Maui.

Dr. Alan Tice, a professor at the University of Hawaii who specializes in infectious diseases, has identified ocean water as a potential source of MRSA.  “I think ocean water is definitely a potential source of MRSA,” Tice has said.  “We have found in Hawaii as many as 100 MRSA colonies per liter of sea water”.

It is suspected that this bacteria comes from wastewater treatment systems.  Waterborne pharmaceutical byproductspromote antibiotic-resistant germs, especially when — as in the process of wastewater treatment — they are mixed with bacteria in human sewage.

Disinfection of wastewater removes disease-causing organisms from wastewater, using either chlorine or UV light.  Chlorine is cheaper but not good for the ocean. Because UV is expensive, the County of Maui does not disinfect all wastewater that is injected into the ground at Kahului.

That water then seeps into the ocean and we surfers, paddlers, swimmers and divers reap the results – increasing  infections.  This is why we want to stop the two new Kahului injection wells  until the County either disinfect the water or redirects it.

We do not understand why Mayor Tavares is fighting us on this. Please call her at 270-7855  and ask for her support.